The following is an excerpt from information provided by organ procurement organizations to the general public.  It answers many of the common questions people have about organ and tissue donation.

Q: Why should you consider becoming an organ and/or tissue donor?

A: The major problem is obtaining enough organs for the growing number of Americans needing them.

Advances in medical science have made transplant surgery increasingly successful.

Transplantation is no longer considered a short-term experimental solution, but rather a long-term desirable treatment option to a deadly medical disease.

There are more than 90,000 Americans waiting for organs to become available.

Approximately every 12 minutes a new name is added to the waiting list. Each day, 17-18 people die waiting for a lifesaving transplant.

In contrast to the large number of people awaiting transplant, there are approximately 10,000 organ donors in the United States each year. Most donors contribute multiple organs however; there are still a great number of people waiting for transplant.

Q: What can you as an individual do?

A: Discuss your wishes with your family. In certain states, your legal next-of-kin must give permission for donation to occur. In most cases, the family will honor their loved one's wish to donate. However, in many situations the family is unsure what to do since their loved one never brought up the topic of donation.

Sign a donor card.

Sign your driver's license.

Sign up on your state's online donor registry.

Tell others.

Q: Who can become a donor?

A: Consider yourself a potential organ and tissue donor. Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs and tissues can be donated.

Anyone over 18 can indicate their desire to be an organ donor by signing a donor card or expressing their wishes to family members.

Relatives can also donate a deceased family member's organs and tissues. In certain states, the legal next-of-kin must always give consent for organ donation to occur.

Contrary to poplar belief, age makes little difference in determining if you can donate. In one case, an 84-year-old Mississippi man's family donated his organs. His liver went to a 17- year-old boy who lived in New York. Even further evidence that age is not a factor: The oldest documented organ donor in the United States was 96.

Q: Why don't more people donate?

The perception that a donor card carries a "death wish." Some people admit they are afraid to carry a signed donor card. They fear it might influence hospital staff to withhold lifesaving medical treatment in order to recover organs.

Some people think organ and tissue donation is against their religious beliefs.

Many fear that the body will be mutilated. They think donation hinders funeral arrangements.

Lack of education and awareness of the current status of organ transplantation and the dire need for lifesaving organs.

An overall distrust of medical professionals.

Many times the subject is over looked. Families don't about donation while they're in a state of grief. Hospital staff mistakenly think that they are "sparing the family from more grief" by over looking the subject.

Q: Can you choose to donate if you are under eighteen years of age?

A: Yes, but only with the consent of an adult who is legally responsible, such as a parent or legal guardian. The adult or adults should encourage you to sign a donor card.

Q: Can you donate an organ while you are still alive?

Certain kinds of transplants can be done using living donors.

Almost 50 percent of all kidney transplants are performed with living donors.

The donor is often related to the person in need of the transplant.

Both donor and recipient can live a normal life with just one healthy kidney.

There are new methods of transplanting a portion of a living adult's liver to a child needing a liver transplant.

A portion of lung or pancreas can also be transplanted from a living donor.

Q: What organs and tissues can I donate?

A: Needed organs include the heart, kidney, pancreas, lungs, liver and intestines.

Tissues that can be donated to help others includes the eyes, skin, bone, heart valves and tendons.

Q: Will my decision to become an organ and tissue donor affect the quality of my medical care?

A: No. Organ and tissue recovery takes place only after all efforts to save your life have been exhausted and death has been legally declared. The doctors working to save your life are entirely separate from the medical team that would be involved in recovering your organs and tissues.

Q: Are there costs to my family for donation?

A: Donation costs nothing to the donor's family or estate.

The donor's family is responsible for hospital charges not involved with the donation, and the donor's funeral arrangements.

Q: What will happen to my donated organs and tissues?

A: When your legal-next-of-kin gives permission for donation to occur, they can give consent for any needed organs and tissues; or they make specific requests.

The wishes of the family are always honored and only the organs and/or tissues for which the family signs consent are recovered for transplantation.

The patients who receive the organs and tissues for transplant will be chosen based upon many factors, such as blood type, body size and medical matching.

A national system is in place to ensure the fair distribution of organs in the United States. The buying and selling of organs is against the law.