When being faced with the question of whether one wants to become an organ donor, not everybody can easily make the decision right on the spot. Some may question whether they want that pink dot on their California ID due to the fact that they may not know much about the process of organ donation.

According to Donate Life California, the official nonprofit state-authorized organ and tissue donor registry, the donation is free of charge and will not affect a person’s funeral arrangements or medical care. On their website, www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org, they stated, “One person can save eight lives and enhance 50 others through organ, eye and tissue donation.”

Anybody regardless of their age can register to donate at a DMV but one must be 13 years of age or older to register online. If a donor is underage, the family still has to give consent to the donation at their time of death.

The Donate Life California website also reassures donors that their medical attention will not be affected by their donor status. After a person has died, two doctors not involved in any way with organ or tissue donation must declare that the person is deceased. “It is only after every attempt has been made to save a patient’s life and death has been declared that the donation process begins.”

Direct and living donations can be made in order to assure a specific person receives your organ or tissue donation. Direct donation can only be done at the time of the donation (after death) and is supported by Advanced Health Care Directive. Living donations on the other hand are organ donations that are given by living people. These donations are limited to only one kidney and a liver section.

One thing that may not be known by many is that in May 2015, it was announced by the Department of Health and Human Services that the organs of HIV donors would be accepted and used for an HIV candidate participating in a clinical research. This development can possibly move toward allowing all HIV donors to not be denied and become allowed to give organ/tissue donations to other HIV patients in need.

Undocumented immigrants are also among those that cannot be denied a transplant due to their immigration status.

About 123,000 people are on the national organ transplant waiting list and out of those, 22,000 are in California. But 150 people on average are added to that list each day. Although there are 12.7 million organ, eye, and tissue donors in California, only 40% of those that are eligible to donate are actually registered to do so.

For more information about organ and tissue donation, you can visit www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org.