Canadian Blood Services’ statement about organ donation news reports in the U.S. July 2025
On July 20, 2025, U.S. news media reported on alleged incidents of rushed or premature attempts to remove organs from patients in the United States, which could impact Canadians’ perception of organ donation and transplantation programs in Canada.
The Canadian and U.S. organ donation and transplant systems operate differently at a fundamental level. There are no profit driven incentives or influences in Canadian care for organ donation and transplantation.
Additionally, there is a strict separation between intensive care unit health-care teams which manage donation and the health-care professionals who are responsible for transplantation. Transplant professionals have no role in the care of dying patients who may become organ donors, the management of end-of-life care and the determination of death. Death must be determined and confirmed by ICU teams prior to the involvement of transplant professionals. These are the ethical and legal principles that form the foundation for ensuring public and professional trust in the Canadian organ donation and transplantation system.
Canada has more than 150 organ donation focused intensive care unit physicians who specialize in understanding devastating brain injury, end of life care and organ donation. Their role is to ensure quality and safety in the system and protect the system from any compromise in ethical conduct. This role is of tremendous benefit to the Canadian health-care system.
The recent reports from the United States focus particularly on incidents involving donation after death determination by circulatory criteria (DCC). DCC is an option for organ donation for patients with severe brain injuries once a decision has been made to remove all life-sustaining treatments. When a person's heart permanently stops beating, they have experienced circulatory death. Since being adopted in Canada, DCC has been responsible for the largest quantitative increase in deceased donation and transplantation in Canada. The success of DCC is only possible because it was implemented in a way that protects patients and safeguards public and professional trust. The first responsibility of health-care providers, regardless of the potential for donation, is to provide care for the dying patient and their family. In Canada, care for a dying patient is never compromised by the desire to protect organs for donation or to expedite death for the benefit of timely organ recovery.
Canada is a world leader in developing medico-legal and ethical guidelines for the determination of death. Protecting the trust and integrity of the deceased donation system is critical to the development of national guidelines in Canada.
In Canada, organ donation only takes place after doctors confirm that a person has passed away. Determination of death is based on rigorously developed clinical practice guidelines that provide the biomedical definition of death based on permanent cessation of brain function. The guideline development process involved 57 panel members including adult and pediatric ICU physicians and nurses, neurocritical care, neurology, radiology, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, bioethics, legal, patient/family partners, clinical practice guideline methodologists and international advisors. These guidelines are evidence-based and were most recently reviewed in 2023 by legal, medical and ethical experts, as well as patient groups and donor families.
Organ donation after death accounts for the vast majority of transplantation in Canada. Clarity around the definition of death and continual review of clinical procedures for the determination of death in Canada ensures the trust and integrity of deceased donation.
Deceased donation is the process of giving one's organs or tissue after their death for the purpose of transplantation to another person. A single organ donor has the potential to provide as many as eight organs for transplant and up to 75 others through tissue donation
More than 4,000 Canadians are on a waiting list for a lifesaving organ transplant in Canada, but on average, 250 Canadians die each year waiting for an organ transplant. It is only through the generosity of organ donors, their families, and the professionals who support them before, during, and after donation, that lifesaving transplants are possible.
The priority of all healthcare professionals is always to save life. In all cases, organ donation is never considered until all lifesaving efforts have been exhausted.
For more information about deceased donation visit this page.