Organ donation and procurement is on the forefront of medical treatment in America today. Increasingly, organ donation is being offered as the solution to prevent, or delay, death. Many are being added to the organ transplant lists on a daily basis; currently the organ transplant list is 113,000. Due to the discrepancy between the demand for organs and the availability, the definition of death continues to change. This paper will review the history of defining death and current proposals to change this definition to increase the supply of organs. This paper will cover the following topics:• The history of brain death• Donation after Cardiac Death (DCD)• Name change to Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) or Non-heart Beating donor• Current and proposed procedures in ICU to improve the viability of the organ procured and the implications for the patient who is the organ donor• Uncontrolled donation and controlled donation