Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs About Donor Registration

Get answers to your questions about donor registration.
You can register your decision to be a deceased organ, eye and tissue donor in the National Donate Life Registry here on our donor registration page, on RegisterMe.org, or in your iPhone Health App. Your donor registration is a binding, legal document of gift. You can remove your registration, update your personal information or specify more detailed donation preferences at any time at RegisterMe.org. You can also register your decision to be a deceased organ, eye and tissue donor in your state registry at your local DMV or Driver License Partner office. If you have questions about a registration in your state donor registry, please reach out to your Donate Life state contact. Any adult age 18 or older can register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor – regardless of age or medical history. 15-17 year olds can register their intent to be organ, eye and tissue donors in the National Donate Life Registry. However, until they are 18 years old, a parent or legal guardian makes the final donation decision. If registering in the National Donate Life Registry through iPhone, you must be 18 years or older. Both your state donor registry and the National Donate Life Registry are checked by donation professionals at the time of your death. The most recent donor registration is honored as your legal document of gift.
In an effort to reduce access barriers for prospective living donors and streamline the living donation process to help save more lives, DLA is currently working with funding partner, Fresenius Medical Care Foundation, to develop the National Donate Life Living Donor Registry. Launching in 2021, the Living Donor Registry will allow individuals to register their interest in being a living kidney donor and receive a preliminary at-home testing kit to help with further evaluation by a living donor transplant program. Until the National Donate Life Living Donor Registry is launched, please contact a living donor transplant program in your area for more information on how to start the process. You can find contact information for living donor transplant programs and other helpful patient information at UNOS TransplantLiving.org. If you have a specific recipient to whom you would like to donate, contacting the transplant hospital of the person in need of the transplant is the first step. Many hospitals have a form on their website that potential donors can fill out to begin the process, or you can call the transplant hospital and ask to speak with the living donor coordinator. Learn more on our living donation page.
If you registered in the National Donate Life Registry on DonateLife.net, RegisterMe.org, or in your iPhone Health App, please go to RegisterMe.org and click “Access Your Registration” to make changes to your donor registration record. If you registered through your DMV or Driver License Partner, please reach out to your Donate Life state contact.

No, you no longer need a donor card.

When someone is a candidate for donation, donation professionals will search the National Donate Life Registry and state registries to determine if you have registered your decision to be a donor.

If you would like to keep printed documentation of your donation decision with your end-of-life records, you can print out your Document of Gift from your donor registrant record at RegisterMe.org.

In the National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org, your deceased donor registration is authorization for organ, eye and tissue donation for transplant. You may also authorize donation for research and education and/or list any existing registration with a specific research program on the Access Your Registration page. Please list specific research program information under Donation Specifications.

What can be donated:

Organs

Tissues

No. They are two separate registries:

  • The National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org.
  • Your state donor registry can be found by contacting your Donate Life State Team. If you registered at your local DMV, your donor registration is in your state donor registry.

Both your state donor registry and the National Donate Life Registry are checked by donation professionals at the time of your death. The most recent donor registration is honored as your legal document of gift. 

Donate Life America (DLA) saw the need for a National Registry when several national partners approached DLA about promoting donation on a national level. The National Donate Life Registry was created to optimize these national partnership opportunities, to be mobile friendly, and to ensure that potential registrants had an effective and easy way to register their donation decision. The National Donate Life Registry does not replace any state registries.

You can register in both, if you desire to do so. If you are registered in your state donor registry, you can still register your donation decision in the National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org or in your iPhone Health App. It takes less than a minute and does not conflict with the state donor registry. Your national registration will travel with you across state lines. Your state donor registry and the National Donate Life Registry will be checked online by donation professionals at the time of your death. The most recent donor registration is honored as your legal document of gift.

If you registered in the National Donate Life Registry, you can access your donor record by tapping/clicking on the “Edit Registration” button at RegisterMe.org. You will be asked to enter a few key data fields (e.g., name, address) to log in to your donor record. When in your donor record, you can update your address, add research as a donation option, and list out any donation preferences you may wish to add.

Any adult age 18 or older can register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor – regardless of age or medical history. 15-17 year olds can register their intent to be organ, eye and tissue donors in the National Donate Life Registry. However, until they are 18 years old, a parent or legal guardian makes the final donation decision. If registering in the National Donate Life Registry through iPhone, you must be 18 years or older. Want to learn more about organ, eye and tissue donation? You can find more information on donation statistics, learn about the types of organ donations and get answers to all of your organ donation FAQs.