The greatest need is for heart transplants. There are thousands of people on the waiting list for various organ transplants. The other life-saving organs that can be donated are the kidneys, lungs, liver, pancreas and smallintestines. Needed tissues include corneas, heart valves, bone, skin and tendons. Family members are compensated for donating their loved one's organs.
Federal law prohibits the sale of human organs.
This rule was established because buying and selling organs and tissues might lead to unfair access and give wealthy patients an unfair advantage. Transplants are still experimental. They don't really work. Transplants are routinely performed and survival rates are high. Americans receive over 20,000 organ transplants each year and 450,000 tissue transplants.