Organ Donation

LegalWills.co.za is dedicated to providing services related to advance directives, including specifying your organ donation wishes in the MyFuneral™ service.  Below are some questions and answers related to organ donation.

What exactly is organ donation?

Many of your internal organs are still functional after you have died. Organ donation is a process to surgically remove useful organs after you have died, and pass these to recipients who are otherwise healthy, but need a particular functional organ. There are currently tens of thousands of patients worldwide waiting to receive functional organs. Often these people are in life threatening conditions.

Will I qualify to be a donor?

Any adult can express a desire to donate their organs after they have died. Whether or not the organs are donated is determined on a case by case basis at the time of death. There are no age restrictions, or health restrictions on expressing this desire. Many elderly people have been successful donors, and children can also donate with parental consent. If you support the principle of organ donation you should not be discouraged based on your personal health or condition. The suitability of your organs for a specific recipient will be determined by medical practitioners, based on known information, a series of tests and the characteristics of the recipients waiting for organs.

How will people know that I want to donate my organs?

It is extremely important to notify your loved ones of your desire to donate organs. You can at a minimum indicate this desire on your driver's license or by carrying an organ donor card. Expressing this intent in your Last Will and Testament is impractical, as most donations will need to be carried out well in advance of your Will being located and read.

By stating your desire to donate organs in the MyFuneral™ service here at LegalWills.co.za, you will be making your designated personal "Keyholders®" aware of your desire prior to any funeral arrangements being made. By discussing your wishes with your loved ones you will also be making them aware of your intent for organ donation ahead of time. You should also consider carrying a LegalWills.co.za wallet card (ordered using the MyWalletCards™ service) so that your specific wishes regarding organ donation can be accessed quickly when required.

What organs can I donate?

Donations can be made of both organs and tissues. The term "tissues" refers to anything that is not considered to be an internal organ. The organs that can be donated are the heart, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, liver and intestines. The tissues that can be donated are the cornea, skin, bone marrow, heart valves and connective tissue. The organs are used to help a recipient with that specific organ failure. The tissues are used to treat blindness, burns, arthritis, heart disease and a number of other congenital defects. For example, heart valves are often used to treat children with defects in their own hearts.

Can I donate my eyes if I wear glasses?

Yes. Even totally blind people can donate their eyes because poor eyesight does not prohibit eye donation. Only the cornea (clear, front part of the eye) is used for corneal transplantation. The sclera (white part of the eye) can be used for research (if you wish) to aid in future treatment of eye diseases.

Do organ donations save lives?

Absolutely. Many organ and tissue donations are used to save a life, while many more are used to enhance lives, such as donations of corneas which offer the gift of sight to a blind person.

What will happen at the time of donation?

First of all, donation will never happen until you are clinically dead. This means that "brain death" must occur --- where the brain is no longer functioning although the function of other organs may be artificially supported. The artificial circulation of blood through the body can sustain organs for some time, although even without this support organ donation can still be performed successfully within a short period of time after death. After the organs and tissues have been removed, many can be stored until a recipient has been identified. Furthermore, different organs have different longevities. For example, corneas are usually transplanted within 24 hours, but some tissues like heart valves can be stored for up to five years before they are used.

Will the donation be successful?

Successful organ donation and organ transplant of the donated organs is not guaranteed, but the attempt at organ donation is sometimes the only immediate option available for a person close to death. Success rates vary for different organs but range between 70 and 90 percent. For example heart transplants are successful in over 80 percent of cases. It is important to note that one person can donate many organs and tissues, and so there is a possibility that a number of people will benefit from a single donor.

Can I donate any of these things before I die?

Some donations can be made while you are living, particularly blood and bone marrow. Relatives or spouses can donate a kidney, a partial liver and a partial lung with a particular recipient in mind. In addition bone can sometimes be donated if you are, for example, having bone removed for hip replacement surgery.

What if I've already decided to donate my body to medical science?

Organ and whole body donation are two separate requests. The donor must decide on whether to donate their whole body to a medical school or whether to donate individual organs at the time of death. Whatever the decision, a donor will receive a donation wallet card that should be carried at all times.

Won't organ donation get in the way of carrying out my funeral arrangements?

Normally, funeral arrangements can be carried out as usual. Once a patient is declared dead, and the family gives their consent, donation is usually completed within 24 hours.

Will I still be able to have a viewing at my funeral ceremony?

Donation does not disfigure the body and does not interfere with funeral plans, including open coffin services. Organ donation is a surgical operation and will not disfigure the body in any way.

What does organ donation cost?

The donor's family does not pay for the cost of the organ donation. All costs related to the donation of organs and tissues are paid by the recipient, usually through insurance or health care programs (e.g. Medicare).

What if I have already filled out the organ donation form on my drivers licence? Will my decisions made there take precedence over the decisions I make here in the MyFuneral™ service?

If your organ donation form is signed by yourself and two witnesses it is a legal document in some jurisdictions. However, it is more likely to represent your willingness to donate. If your family vehemently objects to these wishes then it is unlikely that organ donation will occur. It is mandatory to make your wishes clear and unambiguous to your family, which is why the MyFuneral™ service exists. If there is an inconsistency in the expression of your willingness to donate, the decision will rest with your next of kin.

What will I be paid?

You cannot sell human organs and tissues. Contrary to popular myth, there is not a healthy black market in illegally obtained organs. Recipients are not ranked in terms of their ability to pay, only by their medical need and suitability for receiving the organ.

How do I specify my organ donation wishes?

The MyFuneral™ service here at LegalWills.co.za will let you specify your organ donation wishes, as well as make many other decisions regarding your funeral and other arrangements after you have passed away.  It is important that you document these wishes so that they can be communicated to your survivors when the time is right.

Does it matter where I live?

Services such as MyFuneral™, MyLifeLocker™, MyVault™, and MyMessages™ do not create legal documents and make no assumptions about your country of residence. 

We have worked extensively with lawyers to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™, MyExpatWill™, MyPowerOfAttorney™ and MyLivingWill™ services are up to date with the laws in your jurisdiction.

If you have any doubts about the legal standing of any documents in your jurisdiction, feel free to seek legal counsel in your area to have your documents reviewed.

How It Works

When you create a Will or legal document at LegalWills, you can designate up to 20 different Keyholders®. Your chosen Keyholders® will be given the trust and power to unlock specific information within your account such as health care directives, funeral wishes, final messages, uploaded files, Power of Attorney, or Last Will and Testament.

You can also implement security mechanisms to prevent premature access to these documents. The entire process of creating your Will and other legal documents at LegalWills is seamless and iterative, meaning you can continue to make changes until you're happy with the final product.
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Frequently Asked Questions

There is absolutely no legal requirement to use the services of a lawyer to prepare your Will.

The law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and then signed by you in the presence of two witnesses. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

If you need legal advice, you should secure the services of a lawyer, but most people do not need legal advice to prepare a Will. Especially if they are using a service like the one at LegalWills.co.za.
When you write your Will with a lawyer, you are paying for their training, so that if you needed custom clauses written for unique situations, they would probably be able to do this for you. However, most Wills do not require unique new clauses to be written, and the vast majority of Wills are a compilation of known legal "precedents".

Most lawyers use Will writing software to prepare Wills, and we use that exact same software, but give you direct access to it. You should really be asking why a lawyer charges R2,000 for about an hour's work.

If you have unusual circumstances, such as a child with special needs, then you may need legal advice. But for the vast majority, you would be paying premium rates for legal advice that you don't need.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for R499 with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our lawyers for R999. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this.

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is R149, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™ and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs R499. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a lawyer each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. R149 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at R299, 10 years at R449.

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 26 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay R149 to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

Our answer is different depending on what you are comparing us to.

The service at LegalWills.co.za is significantly better than a blank form Will kit that you can buy on Amazon or WHSmiths. These blank kits do not check for errors, allow you to do things you are legally not allowed to do, and rarely cover backup scenarios. They are actually the most difficult way to prepare a well drafted Will.

We provide the same quality documents as an estate planning lawyer – often word-for-word identical, because we use the same software that they use. We've just adapted it to make it easier to understand, and given you direct access to it. Therefore, you can create a lawyer grade Will, but from the comfort of your own home at less than a tenth of the price.

When compared to other online services, we have honest, up-front pricing that is better than any equivalent service. We also believe that we have the highest quality service online today. In all the time that we have been in business, never once has one of our Wills had an issue going through the probate process. We also offer best-in-class phone and email support if you get stuck.

Some other highlights:

  • Help text every step of the way.   Every page of our service has additional help text to answer your questions. If you get stuck, send us an email and we can help.

  • Create your Will from anywhere at any time.   Our service works on any computer, phone or tablet. Which means you can create or update your Will in the middle of the night in Timbuktu if you need to.

  • Unlimited updates.   If you write your Will with a lawyer, it could be out of date by the time you get home. You don't face that issue with LegalWills.co.za. If your circumstances change, simply login to your account, update your document, and sign your new Will. There is no charge for updates as long as you maintain a membership.

  • Professional reviews by a lawyer.   Our service works for the vast majority of situations, but on occasion people have unusual circumstances and need the reassurance of a legal professional's eye. We offer this as an option.

  • Our other services.   We don't just do Will writing. We offer a complete portfolio of services that will help you to plan your estate. We have the LifeLocker® executor tool, that allows you to document all of your personal details and assets, and MyVault™ that lets you upload important files. Together with our Keyholder® mechanism, you can be assured that the right information gets into the right hands at the right time (and not before).

  • Privacy and security.   We do not store any information as plain text. We do not store Wills in our database. All of your information is encrypted on our servers. Nobody can access it except you and your designated Keyholders® at the appropriate time. Furthermore, we do not share, trade or sell any of your data with third parties whatsoever.

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