Around the world organ donor awareness week is earmarked by different countries at different dates as a week to commemorate the ultimate act of kindness by donors and donor families who give strangers a second lease of life.

The concept of 'Brain Death' is important for those involved in organ transplantation, however this condition was not invented for the benefit of organ donation. The head injury due to road traffic accident can account for almost 50% of Brain Deaths. Organ donation is perhaps the only positive outcome of this grave tragedy, provided the relatives agree to the process.

35 million people are blind or going blind in the developing world and most of them can be cured. Out of 3 million blind people 60% are children below the age of 12. So, if we have got God's gift of Vision, why not try to pass it on to somebody who doesn't have it? Eye donation slide show explains explicitly about the procedure and benefits of donating eyes.

Kidney works a filtering unit for the body and helps in discarding waste products from blood stream. Usually, there are two kidneys in each one of us. They are bean shaped and weigh about 150gms and are 12 cm x 5 cms in size. The two kidneys contain about two million nephrons. The nephrons work continuously to filter out waste products from the blood stream.

Chronic renal failure is a gradual and progressive loss of the ability of the kidneys to function normally. The change is irreversible and is due to loss of nephrons of the kidney. The nephrons are basic functioning unit of the kidney and there are normally about one million nephrons in each kidney.

Dialysis using a filtering process of the blood by a machine is called hemodialysis. Dialysis using the natural filtering membrane of the body called "Peritoneum" is called Peritoneal Dialysis. In serious kidney disease, kidney function is impaired or totally lost. In such a situation, it is by the process of "Dialysis" that waste products and excess fluids are removed from the blood.

Kidney transplantation is the transfer of a healthy kidney from one individual (donor) to another (recipient) through a specialized surgery. It is one of the best treatment options for patients with kidney failure. In order to meet the worldwide shortage of organs, it has now been accepted that a renal failure patient can receive a kidney from an unrelated donor.

The liver is the largest organ in the human body. The liver plays a major role in the metabolic process. When the functioning of the liver is inadequate to meet the requirements of the body, a condition called liver failure sets in. Cirrhosis, a liver disease is a risk factor for liver cancer. Viral infection (hepatitis), alcohol consumption drug abuse are common causes of liver cirrhosis.

Liver transplantation is a surgical option for the treatment of liver failure where the surgeon replaces the diseased liver with a healthy one.Transplant ensures a better quality of life for the recipient. Currently, the liver for transplantation is obtained from three different groups of donors. Live donors, living unrelated donors and cadaveric donors.

Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT)/Stem Cell Transplantation that is done for leukemia and other blood-related disorders. Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) is replacing unhealthy marrow cells with healthy stem cells. It may be difficult to find the best matched donor for BMT. Brothers or sisters are best matches; more the siblings, better the changes.