Organ donation: retrieval upon death

Verified 22 January 2025 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Are you wondering about organ donation when you die? You are presumed to have consented to the donation of your organs unless you have registered in the National Refusal Register. This donation is free of charge, anonymous and made for therapeutic or scientific purposes. We're presenting the regulations.

If you have not expressed a choice about the removal of your organs, your consent is presumed. So you're an organ donor unless you have expressed your refusal during your lifetime.

It is important to distinguish whether you are an adult or a minor.

Major

Consent to organ donation is presumed. This means that if you have not given notice of your refusal during your lifetime, you are considered to be in agreement that your organs should be removed when you die.

Before any sampling, it is therefore proceeded to search for information to know if you have issued a disagreement.

Minor

Where the deceased person is a minor, the removal may only take place on condition that each of the persons entrusted with the exercise of parental authority (e.g. parents, guardian) give its consent in writing.

If it is not possible to consult one of the parents, the levy may take place provided that the other parent gives his agreement in writing.

Please note

From the age of 13, a minor wishing to oppose the removal of his organs can register in the national register of refusals.

You can refuse the removal of your organs in particular by signing up for the National Organ Donation Denial Register.

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Entry in the national register of refusals

Before any organ removal, medical teams must systematically consult the national registry of organ donation refusals.

Refusal of sampling may concern:

  • LAll organs and tissues may be taken
  • Or only some of these organs or tissues.

Registration in the national register of refusals can be done online or by post.

Registration in the national organ donation refusal register

Who shall I contact

You can edit or cancel such entry by following the same procedure. You must equip yourself with:

  • A copy of a double-sided ID
  • And your file number.

This change or cancelation can be done online or on paper.

The hospital collection coordination team takes into account the expression of will the most recent.

Other methods for expressing refusal

You have to distinguish between whether you can write or not.

You can write

You can also say no in writing and entrust this document to a relative.

This document is dated and signed by you. Your name, first name, date and place of birth are indicated.

You cannot write

If you cannot write and sign the document expressing your refusal yourself, you can ask 2 witnesses to certify that this document that you were unable to draft is an expression of your will. These witnesses shall state their name and capacity and their certificate shall be attached to the document stating the refusal.

Other case

A relative of yours can also make your manifest refusal orally in your lifetime.

This relative or the hospital collection coordination team transcribes this refusal in writing, mentioning precisely the context and the circumstances of its expression.

This document is dated and signed by:

  • The relative who claims the refusal
  • The hospital collection coordination team.

The levy is free to prevent trade in human organs.

The levy is anonymous : your family cannot know the identity of the recipient.

The recipient also does not know your identity.

Please note

The transplant recipient (the recipient) can send a letter anonymously, through hospital donation coordinates, to the donor family. 

However, your family can read at any time:

  • Organs and tissues removed
  • The result of the transplants carried out with the medical team.

Organ harvesting from a deceased person is done only for the purpose of therapeutic or scientific.

It follows a multi-step procedure.

Death record

Death is recorded by doctors who do not belong to the transplant teams.

Interview with relatives

The announcement of the death shall be made by the doctor in charge of the deceased in the presence, as far as possible, of the hospital coordination team.

If you were not registered in the national refusal register, an interview takes place with your loved ones after your death has been announced.

This interview shall be prepared at least by:

  • Physician in charge of the deceased
  • Hospital Organ and Tissue Collection Coordination Team
  • Paramedic team responsible for you.

The purpose of this interview is to inform your loved ones of a possible removal of organs and tissues from your person.

During this interview, each participant introduces himself. Your loved ones need to be able to identify every caregiver.

These exchanges with your loved ones allow to collect the possible expression of an opposition during your lifetime to the removal of all or part of its organs and tissues.

The resuscitator and hospital coordination provide information related to the specimen (nature, purpose, and procedure).

The information on the collection is communicated after understanding and acceptance of the reality of the death by your relatives.

Your loved ones may see your body one last time before the sample is taken.

In the case of sampling, the hospital coordination team must in particular:

  • Staying at the disposal of your loved ones until your body is returned
  • And support your loved ones in their subsequent steps.

Preparation of the body for the sample

When the death is announced, your body is kept artificially functioning. Laboratory tests are done to identify possible compatibilities with transplant recipient profiles.

The hospital coordination of transplants is in contact with the regional regulatory and support services of the Biomedicine Agency.

The procedure can be interrupted at any time for medical reasons (deterioration of the state of the organs) or on the knowledge of an indication of the disagreement expressed during your lifetime.

The healthcare establishment which makes the samples shall bear the costs incurred by:

  • By the death of the donor
  • And the body's medical assistance before the sample is taken.

The establishment which has made the levy shall bear the costs of:

  • Body transport the deceased person to a health care facility to obtain samples for treatment
  • CBody conservation and restoration after the act of sampling
  • Rrestitution from body to family.

The doctor who takes an organ sample from a deceased person must ensure the best possible restoration of the body.

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