World Organ Donation Day 2025: History, Significance, Quotes, Celebration

‘Find a need and Fill it.’ Organ donation is an act of saving someone’s life by offering your valuable organ to another person to upgrade his state and health condition. The World Organ Donation Day is annually observed to create awareness in the minds of people and to make them realize the importance of Organ Donation. The one who donates an organ is called ‘Donor’ it can be while he/she is in live or deceased state, and the one who gets transplanted is called ‘Recipient’. The organ donation may be for research, or to be transplanted to another person whose organ is malfunctioning. However, organ donation is a legal procedure where the World Organ Donation is governed by a Transplant Regulatory Body with specific rules stated by authorities. Every institution which conducts Organ Transplant should get registered with the government. The World Organ Day annually falls on August 13. In this article let us check the World Organ Donation Day 2025: History, Importance, Quotes and Celebration.

As per the report, National Health Portal, around 500,000 of the world population dies due to the unavailability of organs. Annually in India, about 5000 Kidneys, 50 Hearts, 1000 Livers are transplanted. The current Indian (0.86 per million) Organ Donation Rate is very low compared to Spain (46.9 million) and America (31.96 million). To meet the current demand of Organ, India should reach 1 per million donation rate.

World Organ Donation Day 2025 Date –  August 13

In this article readers can get a glimpse on

• History and Purpose of World Organ Donation Day
• World Organ Donation Day Theme 2025
• World Organ Donation Day Quiz

History of World Organ Donation Day

Let us read to know the history of World Organ Donation day

• On August 13, The World Organ Donation Day is observed and celebrated all over the globe with an intention to bring awareness about the value of organ donation and to motivate the world for organ donation.
• Ronald Lee Herrick was the first triumphant living organ donor. In 1954 he donated a kidney to identical twin brother. Joseph Murray the lead surgeon who won the Nobel Prize for his advances in organ transplantation in 1990.
• Spain has the highest world’s donor rate (46.91 per million people) secondly comes U.S (36.88 per million) followed by Croatia (34.63 per million), Portugal (33.8 per million), France (33.25 per million) as per 2019 report.
• Anencephaly, a baby was known to be the youngest organ donor, who lived for 100 minutes and made history in donating kidneys to an adult with renal failure (in 2015), the oldest known cornea donor was a Scottish women of 107 years old, a 95 years old West Virginia man was known to be the first internal organ donor, a Britain women of 85 years old was known to be the oldest altruistic living organ donor (in 2014).
• In India, organ donation is directed by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 1994. The law permits donation of both deceased and living donors. The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization/NOTTO functions as a peak body in the distribution of organs over the country.

World Organ Donation Day 2025 Theme

For World Organ Donation Day 2025, the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance has announced its theme as “Answering the Call.” This theme serves as a dual tribute and a powerful call to action for the entire professional community dedicated to organ donation and transplantation.

A Tribute to Dedication: The theme is designed to honor the professionals who form the backbone of the organ donation ecosystem—from hospital staff and transplant surgeons to organ procurement organization (OPO) teams. It acknowledges that their work is more than a job; it is a calling that demands exceptional talent, boundless compassion, and unwavering resilience in the face of both profound joys and significant challenges.

A Call to Action: “Answering the Call” is also a rallying cry for these professionals to deepen their commitment to collaboration and innovation. It encourages them to:

• Contribute expertise to advance best practices and educational initiatives.
• Strengthen national partnerships to optimize the donation process and increase the number of successful transplants.
• Share stories of courage and empathy to inspire others and highlight the diverse contributions of the community.

By focusing on “Answering the Call,” the 2025 theme aims to celebrate the vital work of those who make organ donation possible, while also inspiring them to unite and address ongoing challenges to save more lives.

World Organ Donation Day Previous Themes 

World Organ Donation Day is observed annually on August 13 to raise global awareness about the importance of organ donation and to encourage people to become donors. The day also aims to dispel myths and fears associated with the process.

Here are the themes and primary focuses from recent years:

• 2015: General focus on promoting organ donation and its life-saving potential.
• 2016: Emphasis on raising awareness about the critical shortage of organs.
• 2017: Broad focus on encouraging people to pledge their organs to save lives.
• 2018: The overall message highlighted the importance of organ donation in bringing hope to those in need.
• 2019: General focus on celebrating donors and inspiring more people to register.
• 2020: The focus was on “Honoring the Donors, Celebrating the Recipients.”
• 2021: “Let’s pledge to donate organs and save lives.”
• 2022: “Let’s pledge to save lives and be the reason for someone’s happiness.”
• 2023: “Step up to volunteer; need more organ donors to fill the vacuum.”
• 2024: “Be the Reason for Someone’s Smile Today!“

Purpose of World Organ Donation Day

 The main objective of World Organ Donation Day is to inspire people to donate organs to save someone’s life.

• To aware people about the importance of organ donation.
• To spread information about organ donation all over the world.
• To eliminate the hesitation and folk tale among the world about organ donation.
• To express gratitude to all those organ donors.
• To motivate people and the community in organ donation.

Types of Organ Donation/Transplant

 Below mentioned are few types of organ donation

• Live Related Donation: this type of donation is performed when a living person donates an organ to the needy for transplantation. The living donor can be either a family member like brother/sister, grandparents etc.
• Live Unrelated Donation: this mode of donation is performed among someone who has an emotive relation with the recipient, such as friends, in-laws or a neighbor.
• Deceased Organ Donation: to perform this donation the recipient has to register in an institute that processes They will be added to the waiting list. Transplant is performed when a suitable organ is available.

Interesting Facts on Organ Donation

Let us check some facts on organ donation.

• Each year American receive about 36,000 life saving transplants.
• Did you know? Every 10 minutes, a new person is put on the National Transplant waiting list.
• About 90% of the world population supports organ donation.
• In the National Transplant waiting list there are about 5,000 men, women and children of our region looking for life saving transplants.
• Did you know? Among the waiting list 83% are for a kidney transplant.
• Did you know? One donor can save up to eight lives and just one tissue donor can aid as many as seventy five others.
• Did you know? About 20 people a day die in the U.S due to unavailability of organs.
• From living donors more than 6000 transplants are processed each year and a very few number of organs come from healthy people.
• Did you know? A living donor with fatal conditions like HIV, cancer, diabetes, kidney defects prevent you from organ donation.
• Did you know? There is no fetch to the donor or to their family.
• Regardless of age, gender and medical history, anyone can become an organ donor.
• Currently, in America about 114,000 are waiting for a Transplant. As organ transplant is only the option left.
• In the United States, approximately 98 organ transplants are performed a day, that’s more than 36,000 people get a new life.

How to Observe World Organ Donation Day

Here are a few ways for those registered/not, to create awareness about organ donation.

• As social media is a widely used platform, the best way is to update the importance of World Organ Donation Day on social media.
• Are you still waiting to register? Then this is an excellent day to register to become a donor.
• Besides signing up, it’s as much as important to encourage and motivate others in organ donation.
• Conduct a speech among the city for the purpose of spreading awareness.
• Contribute something to help the patient around you who is in need of an organ transplant.
• Perform a survey in your locality, take out the list of donors and recipients, serve them in all the way you can.

World Organ Donation Day Quotes

Below mentioned are few quotes on Organ Donation.

• “It takes lives to save lives.” – Oscar Auliq-Ice
• “Making a donation is the ultimate sign of solidarity. Actions speak louder than words.”-  Ibrahim Hooper
• “The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important because of how long you live, you are important because of how effective you live.”-  Myles Munroe
• “Ever since I got to know how easily skin donation can save the lives of serious burns patients, I have felt strongly about the issue.” – Paresh Rawal

World Organ Donation Day Quiz 2025

1. Approximately how many people worldwide are on the organ transplant waiting list?

A) 1 million
B) 2 million
C) Over 3 million