Why Deceased Donation Still Lags Behind in India
More than 90% of organ transplants in India rely on living donors, placing enormous pressure on family members to come forward. Deceased donation — where organs are recovered after brain-stem death — remains comparatively rare.
Several factors contribute to this gap: limited public awareness of brain-stem death as a legal and medical determination of death, cultural and religious hesitancy around donation, and inconsistent identification of potential donors in intensive care units.
Expanding deceased donation requires trained transplant coordinators who can support grieving families with compassion, hospitals equipped to certify brain-stem death promptly, and a public that understands how much a single donor can give — up to eight lives saved through one act of generosity.
Closing this gap is one of the central goals of the NOTTO Awareness Initiative.