Common Myths

You may specify in the Centralised Organ Donation Register or on the organ donation card which organ(s) or tissue(s) you wish to donate. In addition, family member of the deceased has to provide consent in writing on the specific organ or tissue to be donated for transplant.

Fees and charges arising from organ donation after the death of donors are not to be borne by their family.

If your wish changes after registration (for example, you want to change the organs to be donated), you can visit the Centralised Organ Donation Register website to fill in and submit the relevant form to update or withdraw your registration.

As the Organ Donation Coordinators of the Hospital Authority can access your wish to donate organ from the Centralised Organ Donation Register directly, there is no need for you to carry the organ donation card. The most important thing is to tell your family your wish to donate organs.

Registered users of “iAM Smart” can check whether they have registered in the Centralised Organ Donation Register through the Centralised Organ Donation Register website (https://www.codr.gov.hk/codr/InternetDataAccess.xhtml) or by using the “Centralised Organ Donation Register (Enquiry of Registration Status)” service of the application.
In addition, those who have registered in the Centralised Organ Donation Register have the right of access and correction with respect to personal data as provided for in section 18 and 22 and Principle 6 of Schedule 1 of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. If you wish to make a data access request, please visit the Centralised Organ Donation Register website (https://www.codr.gov.hk/codr/InternetDataAccess.xhtml) for details.

After registering in the Centralised Organ Donation Register, a person’s wish for organ donation will be recorded in the register, and they do not need to carry the organ donation card with them. We appeal to people who have signed an organ donation card to register at the Centralised Organ Donation Register, in order to facilitate confirmation of your wish and make arrangements accordingly.

Members of the public can apply for registration in the Centralised Organ Donation Register by various means. Those who apply in person or online using the auto form-filling function of "iAM Smart" are only required to provide their Hong Kong identity card number, name in English, email address / correspondence address in Hong Kong and the organ(s) and/or tissue(s) that they wish to donate. Those who apply by post, by fax or online not using "iAM Smart" are required to provide, in addition to the above information, the "Date of Issue" of their Hong Kong identity cards for identity verification.

You can register in the Centralised Organ Donation Register online without using “iAM Smart”. If you apply to register online not using "iAM Smart", you are required to provide, in addition to your Hong Kong identity card number, name in English, email address / correspondence address in Hong Kong and the organ(s) and/or tissue(s) that you wish to donate, the "Date of Issue" of your Hong Kong identity card for identity verification.

Regardless of the means of registration in the Centralised Organ Donation Register, if your wish changes after registration, you can apply to withdraw your registration online, by post, by fax or in-person.

After an organ donation operation, the after-death arrangements of the donor, including the procedures of collecting the deceased body, options of handling the deceased body and ashes as well as funeral arrangements, will be the same as those for people who did not donate organs. The overall processing time will also be similar to other cases.

The Hospital Authority has a waiting list of patients waiting for organ transplant and an established mechanism for allocating cadaveric organs. Patients waiting for organ transplant will be prioritised according to the seriousness of disease and their clinical conditions. Donated organs will be transplanted to patients with medical urgency, the best match and clinical benefits.

The Hospital Authority has established a set of stringent organ donation risk assessment guidelines and criteria. In general, deceased hepatitis carriers can donate their kidneys to patients who are also hepatitis carriers waiting for renal transplant. As for other organs, the transplant team will determine whether it is suitable for donation in accordance with relevant risk assessment criteria and function of the donor’s organs.

In general, there is no conflict between organ donation and body donation. The "Great Body Teacher" Body Donation Programme is under the purview of the School of Biomedical Science of the University of Hong Kong, and the "Silent Teacher" Body Donation Programme is under the purview of the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. According to the information on their web pages, both programmes will accept bodies which have some organs removed for donation. Therefore, residents' wish to donate organs after death will not be affected.

For more information about the two programmes, please refer to the following webpages:

Body Donation Programme of the University of Hong Kong ( https://www.med.hku.hk/bdp/index-e.html ) and

"Silent Teacher" Body Donation Programme of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (https://www.sbs.cuhk.edu.hk/bd/) (Chinese version only).

In general, there is no limit of age for organ donation. In fact, most organ donors are victims of accident or death of acute illness. If their wish of organ donation after death has not been documented or made known to their family members when they are alive, it will be difficult to execute their wish after death. Thus, even young people may consider organ donation.

Once the family’s written consent is obtained, the clinical team would proceed to retrieve the donated organs, with full respect given to the deceased donor and care of the body image throughout the entire process.

Information stored in the Register is treated with strict confidentiality. Only staff of the Department of Health responsible for managing the Register and the authorised personnel (including Organ Donation Coordinators of the Hospital Authority) can access its information.

When a patient has passed away, the clinical team would need the family’s written consent to proceed with organ donation operation. Studies also show that most people, upon learning their family member’s wish to donate organs after death, are willing to honour such wish. As such it is very important to inform family members of the wish.

Most people, including those suffering from brain cancer without secondary spread, can donate organs or tissues after death. Moreover, people of most cancer types can still donate their corneas after death even though their other organs are not suitable for donation. The transplant team will assess all potential donors individually to decide if their organs are truly suitable for such purpose.

When a patient has passed away, the clinical team would need the family’s written consent to proceed with the organ donation operation. Studies show that most people, upon learning of their family members’ wish to donate organs after death, are willing to honour such wish. As such it is very important to inform family members of the wish.

You can seize opportunities arising from daily lives to start a discussion with your family, e.g. when watching news of an organ donation story or organ donation promotional video.

Most people, including those suffering from brain cancer without secondary spread, can donate organs or tissues after death. The transplant team will assess all potential donors individually to decide if their organs are truly suitable for such purpose. Everyone may register his / her wish to donate organs.

In practice, there are only a small proportion of deceased persons whose clinical conditions are fit for organ donation. Therefore, as many people as possible are needed to register their wish to donate organs.

Once family’s written consent is obtained, the clinical team would proceed with the organ donation operation with full respect of the deceased donor and care of the body image throughout the entire process.

Organ transplant survival rate (success rate) in Hong Kong is comparable to those in European and American countries. The transplant team in the hospital will make a thorough examination to confirm the functional status of the donated organs and to identify the suitable recipients in order to enhance the success rate of the operation.

In general, there is no limit of age for organ donation. Organs may be donated by a newborn or one as old as 75. As for tissue donation, the age limit for such is below 80 in the case of corneas, between 16 and 60 in the case of long bones and 10 or above for skin. The transplant team will assess all potential donors individually to decide if their organs are truly suitable for such purpose.

Most people, including those suffering from brain cancer without secondary spread, can donate organs or tissues after death. Moreover, people of most cancer types can still donate their corneas after death even though their other organs are not suitable for donation. The transplant team will assess all potential donors individually to decide if their organs are truly suitable for such purpose.

Most people, including those suffering from brain cancer without secondary spread, can donate organs or tissues after death. Moreover, people of most cancer types can still donate their corneas after death even though their other organs are not suitable for donation. The transplant team will assess all potential donors individually to decide if their organs are truly suitable for such purpose.

Most religions encourage sharing and giving. In fact, religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Catholicism, Christianity and Islam all support organ donation as an act of benevolence and merit.

When a patient has passed away, the clinical team would need the family’s written consent to proceed with the organ donation operation. Studies show that most people, upon learning of their family members’ wish to donate organs after death, are willing to honour such wish. As such it is very important to inform family members of the wish.

You can seize opportunities arising from daily lives to start a discussion with your family, e.g. when watching news of an organ donation story or organ donation promotional video.

Studies show that most people, upon learning their family member’s wish to donate organs after death, are willing to honour such wish. So, anyone who wish to donate organs should tell the family about the wish.