The pain of losing someone dear is undeniable. However, the departure could mean a new chance for other people. Organ donation, an act of solidarity in the afterlife, still faces obstacles and is seen as taboo by some families. In Brazil, there are two digital ways to demonstrate that you are interested in being an organ donor (find out below).
💻 AEDO: Electronic Authorization for Organ Donation has been available since April 2024. Anyone who wants to be donated can express and formalize their desire through an official document, made digitally, recognized by a notary.
🗂️ CNI: It is possible to identify interest in donating organs in the new National Identity Card. The information is on the back of the document in the digital version.
A donation was a new beginning for Sophia Lima, a 2-year-old girl who was born in Parambu, in the interior of Ceará, with congenital heart disease, a serious heart disease. In one of her hospital admissions alone, she spent 9 months in the ICU.
"Every day that I look at Sofia with the chance she had for a new life, I get very emotional seeing my daughter running, dancing, playing, creating her works of art in the middle of the house, with the 'mess' that we love. It's very exciting", said Auriclesia Pereira Lima, farmer.
“It is a huge gratitude that we have, firstly to God, secondly to this family, who in an act of pain gave us a new life”, added Sofia's mother.
➡️ How to do AEDO?
The process is completely digital, from the website www.aedo.org.br. Just access the form, fill it out and send it. After that, the document is sent to a notary's office that will contact the donor to confirm the data in a video call. The declaration has no cost.
After the declaration, the National Organ Donor Center will know, from the CPF consultation, that the person is a donor and, therefore, notify the family before the decision.
➡️ How to indicate organ donation at the CNI?
The person will need to inform, when creating the new document, that they want to include the indication that they wish to be an organ donor. Therefore, it is possible that, when checking your identity, the medical team will know about your desire to donate and present it to the family before making the decision.
If you have already declared yourself a donor on your old ID, it is still valid until 2032. Anyone who does not have this sign on their old document and wants to be a donor can issue a new card.
❤️ Donate from the Heart
This September, the Edson Queiroz Foundation launched the Donate from the Heart 2026 campaign, an initiative that has been encouraging the donation of organs and tissues in Ceará for 24 years. This year's campaign is led by doctor and professor Lourrany Borges Costa, deputy coordinator of the Medicine course at the University of Fortaleza (Unifor).
“During the entire campaign, throughout the month, we carry out several activations and actions and services in shopping malls, at the university itself, providing more information and also bringing in health professionals who work on the organ donation teams, so they have more details about the entire process, and people can clear up their doubts about these myths in relation to donation”, commented the campaign coordinator.
"There is sometimes a fear, or they think that hospital health professionals want to hasten the patient's death, or the myth regarding what the body will look like after the transplant surgery process. But all of this is also clarified in the donation teams", explained Lourrany.
The doctor also spoke about the importance of introducing this awareness into family education. "The sooner this conversation is held in homes, in people's homes, the better, because it is a conversation that can be quick, but can save many lives. Each potential donor can save up to eight people", he highlighted.
Thousands in line
Currently, almost 50 thousand Brazilians are in line for organ transplants. The greatest demands are for kidney, liver and heart, according to the Ministry of Health.
This line could move faster thanks to the initiative of people like commercial representative Alysson Wagner Santos, who indicated interest in CNI. “I changed my ID because there really was a need to change it, because the old one was already well used, very old, and I thought it was important to do it soon”, he explained.
“When I got there I was informed, they asked me about this issue of donation, I said: ‘completely! You can write everything down there that I want to do the whole organ donation part and everything’”, highlighted Alysson.
"I believe that this is one of the principles of being human. From the moment we focus on the issue of doing good for others, of helping others, this becomes very important, and it is something that, when my passing comes, so to speak, then it is something that you will leave for someone else. Imagine how many people right now are in need? Are they struggling waiting for someone to make a donation?", reinforced the organ donor.
45% of families still say no
When doctors find that a patient has brain death, they contact the State Transplant Center. A specialized team approaches family members to find out whether they authorize organ donation. 45% of families still say no.
"One of the reasons that leads the family to say 'no' is the lack of knowledge of their family member's desire. So, when they know about this desire to be a donor, it makes them feel more confident in saying yes and, thus, saving lives", commented Aline Alves, coordinator of the hospital transplant donation team at Hospital Instituto Dr. José Frota (IJF), in Fortaleza.
"This, yes, it will help not only those who wait on a waiting list, because along with them a whole family also gets sick, but also family members who are losing their loved one. Because, in this way, they are able to somehow give new meaning, you know, to that unexpected loss and give it a new meaning", reinforced the nurse.
The importance of informing the family of your desire is reinforced by Lúcio Kildare Lima, a nurse at the Transplant Center.
"What is important for us to know is that, if the person wants to be a donor, if the person is a donor, they have to communicate with their family, they have to pass on the information, they have to sensitize the family and say, expose their spontaneous desire for this donation. And it is such a noble gesture, I think it is such a wonderful gesture, which is a life-saving gesture, right? So, this 'yes' depends on the family, that is why we ask people to inform the family of their decision, of their desire", he explained. the nurse.
"Each transplant is a victory. When we later see the articles, see the stories, we get emotional because we get emotional because we often see a lot of difficulty. And when we manage to save a life, it's something that has no explanation, it's a wonderful thing. And all of us here are very proud of this work", added the health professional.
