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HHS to reform organ transplant system after probe finds donors showed 'signs of life'

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Published  July 23, 2025 12:27pm EDT
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FILE-The Department of Health and Human Services building is shown in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The Brief

    • Health and Human Services officials are planning to overhaul organ transplant systems in the U.S.
    • The agency is taking this action in response to an investigation that discovered cases of organ procurement while patients were still alive.
    • HHS officials are imposing enhanced safety protocols and oversight for organ procurement organizations.

The Department of Health and Human Services is pledging to improve the nation’s organ transplant system.

Health Resources and Administration (HRSA) officials investigated uncovered practices by a major organ procurement company that included cases of organs being acquired from donors who were still alive. 

Why is Health and Human Services overhauling the organ transplant system?

Dig deeper:

According to a release from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Resources and Administration ordered the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) to reexamine a case involving a patient of a federally-funded organ procurement organization serving Kentucky and parts of Ohio and West Virginia.

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The HRSA reviewed 351 cases in which organ donation was authorized, but wasn't completed. Of those cases, 103 had concerning details, including 73 patients with "neurological signs incompatible" to organ donation, according to HHS officials.

And roughly 28 patients may not have been deceased when organ procurement efforts began, prompting serious ethical and legal questions.

HHS officials noted in the release that evidence from the probe found "poor neurological assessments, lack of coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices, and misclassification of causes of death, particularly in overdose cases."

The agency also said that vulnerabilities were higher in smaller and rural hospitals, citing systemic gaps in oversight and accountability. Officials said that the HRSA has ordered strict corrective actions for organ procurement organizations, also known as OPOs, which are required to implement procedures to allow any staff member to stop donation processes if there are concerns.

What they're saying:

"Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. "The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable. The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves."

According to the HHS, HRSA officials are also mandating that OPOs improve safeguards and monitoring on a national level, ordering that data about safety-related stoppages as requested by families, hospitals or staff are reported to regulators.

The Source: Information for this story was provided by a Department of Health and Human Services release, Reuters and Newsweek.  This story was reported from Washington, D.C.


 

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