Donor organizations such as organ and tissue banks serve as the intermediaries in the donation process. Hospitals notify donor organizations only after all efforts have been made to save the patient's life. Another common falsehood concerning organ and tissue donation is that doctors might take organs before the patient is actually dead, which is a misunderstanding of brain death. Brain death is when a person has an irreversible brain injury, which causes all brain activity to stop permanently. When this happens, the heart and lung functions can be maintained with the aid of artificial life support for a short time before the organs begin to deteriorate.
Brain death is an accepted medical, ethical and legal principal.
Only after brain death is diagnosed and declared in a hospital can organs be donated. When on such medical support, the body has color and is warm to the touch, however it is not alive. The bottom line is that brain death is not a coma - it is irreversible. Some people wrongly think that it costs money to donate. Actually, donation is a gift and costs the donor family nothing.