Although almost every citizen in the United States is aware of the organ donation program, generally because of the option to become one when renewing your license, very few people are aware of the crisis underlying that question. There is a steady demand for donated organs, with an ever-declining supply. The federal government and individual states have enacted various legislations in an attempt to offer more avenues for donations. However, as of April 2020, New York state has approximately 10,000 people awaiting an organ donation, and there are over 120,000 people waiting for an organ donation nationally. Every 10 minutes another person is added to the transplant list, and 22 people die each day waiting for a transplant.

Medical surgeries have been performed throughout the world for hundreds of years, but organ transplants are a relatively new concept. Organ transplants have been performed for only approximately 60 years, and the demand for organ donations have steadily increased since.  Early common law writings found there was no value in a corpse. See 3 Edward Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England, at 203 (1644). Throughout judicial history, the courts have held there is no property right in a dead body for commercial purposes. However, as history developed, human body parts were found to be valuable for the study of medicine and anatomy, and many of the concepts we know today are based off these studies. See Colavito v. New York Organ Donor Network, 8 N.Y.3d 43, 50-51 (2006).