Health Services
Organ Recovery - Donor & Recipient Correspondence
Organ Recovery Home 
It is the policy of Organ Recovery Services (ORS) to facilitate correspondence between donor family members and transplant recipients. ORS strongly encourages transplant recipients to correspond with their donor family. Concurrently, ORS promotes a philosophy of guarding and preserving the anonymity of donor families and transplant recipients.
In the past, Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) have been hesitant to release the identity of either donor family member(s) or the transplant recipient for a variety of reasons. Reasons stated for why anonymity should be maintained generally include: families may want a closer relationship than the other party, families may not want to continue a relationship, families may be enduring a financial hardship and look to others for help, families may not meet expectations, and/or families may have different values or beliefs that may be physically or emotionally upsetting to the other family. Today, however, several OPOs believe that the benefits of families corresponding directly greatly outweigh the potential negatives.
The purpose of this policy is to describe the circumstances under which ORS will facilitate the meeting of or release of anonymity of a donor family and transplant recipient. ORS does not actively promote donor family/recipient meetings, we will, however, respect the expressed wishes of donor families and transplant recipients.
Certain general criteria must be met in order for families to correspond directly.
Both the donor family and the recipient have corresponded on an ongoing basis.
Both the donor family and the recipient have expressed a desire to meet or correspond directly in previous correspondence.
The transplant center representative (coordinator or physician) is not opposed to such an action.
-- OPO representative is not opposed to such an action.
-- OPO has policy in place that allows for direct communication.
-- Recipient has signed Recipient Communication Request Form and it has been notarized and returned to ORS.
-- Donor family member (donor's next-of-kin) has signed similar communication request form or statement used by the OPO.
There is no set time frame from the date of donation that is necessary to be met in order for families to correspond directly. As families must correspond anonymously several times and complete the appropriate form that must be notarized, donor families and recipients must be realistic in their expectations that a year's time may pass before their wishes come to fruition.
Once all of the paperwork has been properly completed, a donor family/recipient direct communication can take place in one of two ways. Generally, the donor family or recipient can write a short note with the information they want the other family to have, i.e., full name, address, and/or phone number. Then the correspondence will be sent to the other family unedited. Another option for families would be for ORS to arrange a meeting location and time those families can meet in a controlled environment. Then they can decide if they would like to exchange names, addresses or phone numbers.
