Updated monthly. We report what happened and link the primary source. We don't editorialize. This is a contested topic, so read the source directly for full context.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began decertifying Network for Hope, the organ procurement organization serving Kentucky and parts of Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia (roughly 7 million people), after a federal review of 351 authorized-but-not-completed donation cases from 2021–2024 found "concerning features" in over a quarter of them, including cases involving patients with neurological signs inconsistent with donation. Network for Hope has said it disagrees with the finding and plans to appeal. This action does not affect the Donate Life Kentucky Trust registry itself, which remains the correct place to manage your Kentucky registration.
Several state organ procurement organizations publicly confirmed a continued increase in people removing themselves from donor registries in the weeks following the July 2025 New York Times investigation (below). Arizona's Donor Network reported roughly 2,560 registry removals in July 2025, compared to 336 in the same month a year earlier. That's its largest single-month removal total on record.
UNOS, the nonprofit that operates the national transplant network under federal contract, said the incidents described in the Times reporting fall far below acceptable standards for the U.S. donation system. Separately, the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (representing 46 of the 55 federally designated OPOs) wrote to Times editors calling the specific safety incidents cited "very concerning," while also arguing the coverage lacked balance and had directly contributed to a wave of registry removals that puts transplant patients at greater risk.
Following the Times investigation, HHS announced a review describing a pattern it characterized as prioritizing organ availability over donor safety at some hospitals, and opened a case review involving the OPO serving Kentucky, southwest Ohio, and part of West Virginia. Donate Life America reported a 700% increase in removal requests from the National Donate Life Registry in the week following the story's publication, compared to the prior week.
Reporters Brian M. Rosenthal and Julie Tate published a Times investigation examining organ procurement practices, drawing on interviews with medical workers across 19 states who described witnessing cases involving donation-after-circulatory-death procedures they found troubling. The story became the catalyst for the federal reviews and registry-removal trend covered above. Read the original reporting at nytimes.com (subscription may be required).