History Main / BillyNeedsAnOrgan

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': In Season 9's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E10Faith Faith]]", a liver intended for a young girl, the titular character, is accidentally stolen when bank robbers hijack the ambulance carrying it; they need the medics to tend to one of their own and have no knowledge of or interest in the organ, and the Rangers are left with very little time to catch the robbers, rescue the kidnapped EMT and recover the liver.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' has an episode in which a liver intended for young girl is accidentally stolen when bad guys hijack the ambulance carrying it; they need the medics to tend to one of their own and have no knowledge of or interest in the organ.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero'', Mr. Freeze's wife Nora will die without an organ transplant. They get through the movie without ever specifying which organ it is that she needs; it's implied that she needs several. [[spoiler:It turns out a compatible donor... happens to be Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl. By the end of the movie, Nora is saved, thanks to Wayne Enterprise assistance.]]

* The Creator/ClintEastwood film ''Film/BloodWork'' has a detective investigating the murder of the woman whose heart he got.

Since in RealLife organ donation is still an opt-in process in most countries (i.e. you have to sign up to become an eligible donor), lots more people need transplants than there are organs. RuleOfDrama means that this pops up quite a bit in medical and crime shows. Often a KnightTemplarParent will do whatever it takes to get the LittlestCancerPatient the organ he needs, especially if the person ahead of him is a RichBitch who ruined her body by hard living. Less often the RichBitch learns AnAesop about how precious life is and to open her heart to others (especially if said heart was what got transplanted). Even more rare are incidents in which the organ doesn't take (unless the series is a medical drama); in horror movies, however, the biggest side effect is an increased risk of GrandTheftMe or any other kind of BodyHorror.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/AngelBeats'' an anime set in purgatory, more or less, reveals in episode nine that [[spoiler:just moments before Otonashi died he signed a donor card, in the hopes his death wouldn't be in vain.]] It's shown in episode 13 that [[spoiler:indeed, it wasn't in vain as Kanade has his heart.]]

* In ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'', it's revealed that Vincent Leung married his wife to avoid suspicion of organ trafficking or unsavory reasons when he donated her his kidney. Seems like a case of Thou Doth Protest Too Much.
* [[spoiler: Adorea]] of ''Manga/FrankenFran'' has this in her backstory: she and her boyfriend had life-threatening illnesses, and they each promised they would give their organs to the other should one of them pass away. [[spoiler: The boyfriend died first, so Fran's father donated the organs to Adorea before working his magic on the boyfriend to revive him; the callous boyfriend demanded the organs back, turning Adorea into the...uh..."person" that she is now.]]
* One of the murderers in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' has trying to find a matching kidney for his sick daughter in his backstory--he got involved in the OrganLegging business, and the man he murdered found out and was blackmailing him over this.
* In ''Manga/PetShopOfHorrors'', the dictator of a country is hiding out in America and is in need of an organ transplant. The doctors decide to use the heart of a baboon to do the job, only for said baboon to be kidnapped. Cue a mad rush to find the thing, for fear of sparking a messy political situation. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that the kidnapper is a man whose daughter also needs a heart transplant. The dictator winds up being sniped by someone from his country and they end up giving the baboon's heart to the girl after all. Oh, and there's a subplot where D is apparently suffering from some disease and his "sister" is sent by their father to give her dear brother any of her organs or body parts to cure him. She herself is actually a baboon, and is killed by the shop's pets when D refuses to accept her offer and she attacks him.]] Needless to say, it was a creepy story.
* A running theme in ''Ray'' and the animated series based on it. Ray herself was raised on a farm designed to provide black market organs, this was how she lost her [[EyeScream eyes]], only to have them replaced by [[AwesomeButImpractical X-Ray eyes]].
* Purely hypothetical in ''Manga/StrawberryMarshmallow'': Miu is claiming that her friendship with Chika is closer than that of Ana and Matsuri. One test is what one friend would do if the other needed the first's organs. Matsuri and Ana would definitely do so, even though Matsuri asks what would happen to her if she were the donor (Matsuri seems to forget for a moment that it ''is'' hypothetical and starts crying); Chika is more ambivalent, but comes to the conclusion that she "probably" would, provided that she herself would live. Miu claims "there's no way I'm giving you any of my organs, though."

[[folder: FanFic]]
* ''FanFic/MyLittleTitan'': Part of Rainbow Dash's backstory, shared by her counterpart in ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/89227/the-perfect-match The Perfect Match]]'', a fic by the same author. In both stories, when Rainbow Dash was a filly, she came down with a viral disease that attacks and destroys the kidneys, and would have died without a donor kidney. Her life was saved when Fluttershy had herself tested, turned out to be a perfect match, and Stared the doctors and her parents into letting her donate.

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero'', where Mr Freeze's wife Nora will die without an organ transplant. They get through the movie without ever specifying which organ it is that she needs; it's implied that she needs several. [[spoiler: It turns out a compatible donor... happens to be Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl. By the end of the movie, Nora is saved, thanks to Wayne Enterprise assistance.]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]

* This happens in ''Film/{{Awake}}'' when [[spoiler: Clay's mother kills herself in the hospital waiting room to assure he gets a healthy heart.]]
* The Creator/ClintEastwood film ''Blood Work'' has a detective investigating the murder of the woman whose heart he got.
* The plot of ''Film/DumbAndDumberTo'' is jumpstarted by Harry requiring a kidney transplant, and needing to find his long-lost daughter to obtain one. [[spoiler: Turns out Harry was faking the whole time, to get back at Lloyd's overlong mental institution prank.]]

* ''[[Film/{{JohnQ}} John Q.]]'' has the title character taking a hospital's emergency room hostage to get his son a heart transplant he can't afford to pay for and his insurance refuses to cover. Further, when there's no suitable donor heart available, he starts planning to kill himself to provide one. [[spoiler:He's stopped seconds before he pulls the trigger, when one suddenly becomes available.]]
* A gay French shorts called ''La dérade'' has a variation of this as the main plot. Simon is in need of heart transplant and hides his condition from his lover, a sailor named François. [[spoiler: He does get a donor for transplant in the end, but it comes from François who dies after a car crash when he is on the way to his five-week sailing duty to South Africa. The shorts tells the aftermath of the transplant [[TheLostLenore when Simon is still grieving over François' death as he has a hallucination of talking to François]].]]

* ''Film/SevenPounds'' is about TheAtoner looking for [[spoiler: worthy recipients of his organs before he commits suicide]].
* Scifi variant in ''Franchise/StarWars'': When [=R2D2=] returns from the attack on the Death Star with some structural damage, [=C3PO=] offers to donate any of his circuits or gears that might be needed to repair his companion. Awwww....

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/NeverLetMeGo'' starts off as a slightly creepy story about some kids in a boarding school. About a quarter of the way through we find out that the kids are clones being raised to provide organs. By the end we find out that most clones are indoctrinated so much that they keep giving organs until they end up comatose organ mines.
* This turns out to be the basic underlying scheme in ''StrangeAffair'' by PeterRobinson.
* This trope, plus WalkingTransplant, plus [[CallingTheOldManOut Calling The Old Woman Out]] sparks the plot of ''Literature/MySistersKeeper'' by Creator/JodiPicoult. The girl was conceived and born so she would provide organ donations to her ill sister.
* This was the back story in the Creator/MichaelConnelly novel ''Blood Work'' in which an FBI profiler gets the heart from a murder victim. He ends up solving the case. it turns out [[spoiler: the serial killer was killing compatible donors for him.]]

** ''Let Him Live'', the heroine befriends and falls in love with a boy who desperately needs a liver transplant. [[spoiler:He doesn't make it.]]

* ''Literature/KnownSpace''. ''The Defenseless Dead'' has a law being debated which will enable those in [[HumanPopsicle cold-storage]] to be harvested for their organs. While this will undercut the illegal OrganTheft trade, the detective protagonist is still horrified, especially when he suspects that some former organleggers are planning their own scheme so they'll make money regardless.

[[folder: Live Action Television]]
* In ''Renegadepress.com'''s "The Third Wheel", Jack tries to accept that he’s not a match for his mother’s bone marrow transplant.
* ''{{Series/CSI}}'':
** One episode centered around a family with an ill son whose younger sister was conceived [[WalkingTransplant for the express purpose of finding a match for a bone marrow transplant]].
** There was a black bone/tissue market discovered in one episode. Strange objects, such as umbrellas, were found inside corpses. They were used to replace the harvested bones.
* ''{{Series/CSINY}}'''s episode "Live or Let Die" is this trope, with the variation that it's the doctor's wife needing the liver. He orchestrates a medical helicopter hijacking and kills several people in the process. Mac is naturally not amused, especially recalling his own pain and loss, and tells the guy he will likely be in prison when his wife dies.
* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'', many times. The most noteworthy is Denny Dukett, who fell in love with Izzy and was about to get a donor heart when the donor died, meaning that there was only one heart left at that hospital, and it was going to go to another person. Izzy [[spoiler: cut his LVAD wire, purposefully worsening his health to bump him up the list.]] He survived and got the transplant, but [[spoiler: died later of a stroke.]]

* ''Series/ChicagoHope'' had a few episodes dealing with this.
** A first season episode of has a man whose brother needs a heart transplant, but is far down on the donor list. He finds a gun and then proceeds to take the OR and its staff hostage ''during an operation'' to get the heart to go to his brother.
** Another episode dealt with a white racist who needed a heart transplant, but the donor heart that comes available is from a black teenager. The man dies because [[spoiler: the nurse assigned to him was Asian, and he threatened to have his friends rape her. She was so afraid of him that she never took blood samples from him, which would have shown he was not a good match for that heart]].
* ''Series/{{House}}''. Oh so many times.
** There's an episode where a father kills himself to give one of his organs to his son.
** In one episode a patient has to find a kidney on the black market.
** They have a brain-dead donor who'd be perfect for a man with an ailing heart -- they just have to figure out what was wrong with her so that the donor board will sign off on it.
** There was the time they had a donated pair of lungs that were going to be implanted but couldn't be because they had some kind of illness, so House was called in to cure them when they were nothing more than a pair of lungs in a box.

** "Sonata for Solo Organ" features a millionaire philanthropist who is so desperate to acquire a kidney for his dying daughter (with the added complication that, due to a rare condition, she will reject any organs provided from any donor who is not a specific match to her blood type) that he bribes a doctor to kidnap some guy, steal his kidney then dump him in a park. This episode may have contributed to the persistence of the "[[{{Organlegging}} kidney theft]]" urban legend.
** In "Seed," the attorneys are thwarted in their effort to prosecute a fertility doctor who used his own sperm for his IVF patients when their best witnesses refuse to testify. The couple did not want it to become public that they had their second child (via IVF by the doctor) to provide bone marrow for a transplant for their first child, who had leukemia. The marrows did not match, and the first child died.
** "Harvest" had a woman being shot in the head during a robbery and being declared brain-dead. Her grieving husband agreed to donate her organs, only for it to turn out that she wasn't dead yet and the transplant doctor had accelerated the process in order to improve his record.
** In the ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episode "Ex Stasis", the villain is giving away his organs to people he feels deserve it, and killing them (in such a way that the organ can be transplanted into someone else) if they don't live up to the "bargain". In the end [[spoiler: they get him to confess in exchange for allowing him to continue donating his organs while in prison]].
** One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' centered around a black-market organ ring, with one of the would-be patients being a young boy. Stabler is forced to shut it down, but he and the others are clearly sympathetic.

* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Life Time" deals with a soldier who needs an aorta for his heart, and will either die or wind up paralyzed if not treated within a certain amount of time. There's one possibility for getting a suitable replacement, but it involves BJ waiting around for a fatally wounded soldier to die, which the soldier's buddy does ''not'' appreciate.
* One episode of ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'' involves a group of Indian girls brought to the US to sell their kidneys to a black-market organ ring. Two girls and one recipient ended up dead, and a third girl just barely missed being killed too.
* ''Series/NYPDBlue'': Bobby Simone needed a heart but was far down the list, so they asked all the cops in NYC going out on patrol that day to make sure they sign up for organ donation and stipulate it goes to a cop, Just In Case. The one who ended up dying didn't sign up, and they had to convince his widow to allow them to take his heart. Bobby died anyway.
* One of many Court Cases Of The Week on ''Series/PicketFences'' concerned an elderly man with Alzheimer's, who wanted the legal right to commit suicide under controlled conditions in the hospital so his dying son could receive his heart. A ''very'' moving episode, in that the plaintiff was coherent at certain times of day ([[TruthInTelevision the "sundowning" phenomenon]]), and plainly incompetent at others. [[spoiler: The son eventually gets the heart of a homeless man who'd frozen to death instead ... only to wind up shooting his dad to spare his dignity after finding him stark naked astride a child's rocking horse. Cue the ''next'' Court Case Of The Week.]]
* In the ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' episode "My Lunch", a recurring character commits suicide and three other patients receive organs from her. However [[spoiler: it turns out that she didn't die of a drug overdoes, but of rabies and now the other patients have it too. All three die, and while two of them would never have survived long enough to find another donor anyway, one could easily have held on long enough if they hadn't been infected.]] TruthInTelevision: This episode was based on [[http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/07/01/rabies.organ.transplant/index.html a real case]].
* The SerialKiller OfTheWeek in the ''Series/{{Profiler}}'' episode "Dying To Live" murders people with a rare blood type in order to help people with that blood type in need of organs.
* On ''Series/{{Psych}}'', someone kills a number of people on the regional liver transplant list, in an apparent attempt to move their own name to the top. It was a case of ArtisticLicenseMedicine, as the woman in need of the transplant [[spoiler: has an identical twin, who should've been able to voluntarily donate a liver lobe to her sister without recourse to the donor list.]]
* In one episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' Londo ends up needing a blood transfusion, but has a very rare blood type. He is saved by a transfusion from his wife Timov (who stated that blood type was the ''only'' thing they had in common). While she gets Dr Franklin to promise to not say where the blood came from, the spin-off novels set after the series state that he eventually figured it out.
* On ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', The Cross My Heart Job features a rich businessman who attempted to steal a heart that was intended to be transplanted for a teenage boy. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for the boy, [[BerserkButton Nate and his team find out about this]] and are able to recover the heart. It is interesting due to the limited amount of time that the team has to work with.
* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' did this in season 3. Nick and co are investigating a black market organ ring. Natalie is scheduled for a knee surgery, and has the misfortune to have as her doctor who's connected to it somehow and who's the mother of a girl who needs a heart transplant. She nearly ends up an unwilling donor, but Nick gets there just in time.
* ''Series/GeneralHospital'': Seven year old B.J. Jones was left brain dead after her school bus crashed. Her parents, Tony and Bobbie, took her off life support and donated BJ's heart to her cousin, Maxie, whose heart was failing. The story won much critical acclaim and is regarded as a ground-breaker and one of the best stories to date. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-PabjzhVGM It can be viewed here.]]
** It has been ripped off by several other soaps--''Series/AllMyChildren'', ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'', ''Series/GuidingLight'', and even ''Series/GeneralHospital'' itself--ten years after the BJ's heart storyline, a premature baby's bone marrow was donated to save the life of another infant who was revealed to be her half sister.
* ''Series/ThirtyRock'' gives us the entire episode "Kidney Now!", in which Jack Donaghy, having found his biological father Milton Green, discovers that Green needs a kidney transplant. Since he himself is incompatible, he organizes a benefit concert by blackmailing a bunch of celebrities to sing on national television in the hopes that it might convince someone to donate a compatible kidney.
* In ''Series/{{Curb Your Enthusiasm}}'', Richard Lewis is in need of a kidney. Larry and Jeff find out that both their kidneys are compatible and compete to see who will give the kidney. Larry ends up giving it in the season finale.
* ''Series/ThePretender'', episode "Countdown": A schoolboy is in a car crash; one of his kidneys fails immediately, and the other is expected to go within a couple of days. Finding a match is complicated by him have a rare hereditary blood condition that the donor must also have -- and it turns out ''neither'' of his parents has it. His mother confesses that she had a fling with another man shortly before she married, and the race is on to find that man and persuade him to save the son he doesn't know he has.
* In ''Series/{{Soap}}'' Danny gets shot through both of his kidneys protecting his girlfriend/police witness. Mary, his mother, can't give him one so his brother, Jodie, offers his up except Mary is forced to reveal that they aren't full brothers and that Danny's real father is actually [[spoiler:Chester]], who Mary convinces to give up a kidney.
* "The Goldberg Variation" of ''Series/TheXFiles'' has a boy whose liver doesn't work well (Scully diagnosed him just by looking at him), and he needs either a transplant or to get in a special treatment program in England. He's got a rare blood type and further complications. [[spoiler:He makes it through. The Mafioso of the week was a perfect match and got killed near the end of the episode (this ContrivedCoincidence was justified as the Mystery of the Week involved a man who was BornLucky).]]
* It happens quite a lot on ''Series/MondayMornings'' with interesting twists. Dr. Tierney's transplant program is in the center of attention as much as the brilliant neurosurgeries, which appeared to be the show's main hook, apart from the M&M meetings (M&M stands for morbidity and mortality).

** A young man is badly hurt and everybody assumes he was a [[DrivenToSuicide jumper]]. They are reluctant to treat him, but they do. He might end up a donor but they actually need organs for him. [[spoiler:The team's attitude change when they find out that he ''didn't'' try to commit a suicide but somebody pushed him. Dr. Hooten calls them on it during their "screw-ups meetings", and is extremely harsh on them because suicidal people are considered ill, and they are ''not'' losers unwilling to live.]]
** One woman who is brain-dead signed that she's a donor, but her son doesn't want her organs to be used. They want to legally stop the transplantations and argue that she didn't know what she gave consent to.
* ''Series/{{Oz}}''. Neo-nazi inmate Robson makes the mistake of racially-insulting the dentist giving him a gum transplant, resulting in him being implanted with gums from a black man. At first this is PlayedForLaughs given that Robson is an AssholeVictim, but it quickly becomes NightmareFuel once he's thrown out of the Aryan Brotherhood.
* ''Series/{{Haven}}'' featured someone whose Trouble caused his organs to fail, and thus he would need transplants. He then could steal the organs of his children using an OverlyLongTongue, which also triggers their Trouble if they manage to live. [[spoiler: Duke ends up killing him to end the Trouble permanently.]]
* ''Series/MartialLaw'' had an episode where a heart intended for a governor's daughter is stolen before it can be delivered.
* As did ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger''. Though in this case it was a liver, and the ambulance had been hijacked by bad guys who needed the medics to tend to one of their own and had no knowledge of or interest in the organ.
* A final season plotline of ''Series/{{ER}}'' had John Carter in renal failure due to both injuries he received when stabbed 9 years prior and an infection he picked up while working in Africa. He finally received a kidney towards the end of the season.
* ''Series/{{Sisters}}'' Big Al, second husband of oldest sister Alex was in need of a donor heart and got one on the day of second-oldest sister Teddy's wedding.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}''. Anthony Cooper shows the true depth of his sociopathy when he pretends to reconcile with his son so he can convince him to donate his kidney, then [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness abandon him after the operation]].
* ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel'' One episode focused on a young girl who needed a new heart, while her friend tries to convince a man to donate his brain-dead wife's. Unusually for this both this trope and this show, the girl DIES. On the plus side, the grieving husband finally accepts his wife's death, allowing her organs to be used to save others.
* In the ''Series/WithoutATrace'' episode "Revelations", the VictimOfTheWeek is a priest in need of a liver transplant. His colleagues and the agents fear he may have met with foul play when they notice that he hasn't taken the pager that will alert him if one becomes available. And since one has, there is an urgent need to find him both before he dies or it goes to someone else. [[note]] It turns out that he disappeared on his own to make amends to someone he hurt before becoming a priest and has decided to accept his impending death. [[/note]].
* The ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' two-part story "Nerve"/"The Hidden Memory" initially involves Aeryn needing a nerve graft to save her life after an injury she got in the previous episode.
* Dan in ''Series/OneTreeHill'' spent several seasons searching for a heart transplant. Infamously, the day of his surgery, a clumsy orderly trips and drops the heart--which is then eaten by a nearby dog in one of the most infamous television scenes in recent memory.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': One episode had victims being "underkilled" (shot with glancing blows that leave them clinging to life) and left at places symbolic of rescue (like an ER parking lot). The BAU ponders the implications for a while before realizing it's practical: all the victims are organ donors, and the unsub wants them to be braindead but viable for transplant because his daughter needs a kidney. When she still fails to get one, he resorts to murdering someone ahead of her on the list. In the end, [[spoiler:he kills ''himself'', since he was a match but unsuitable for a living donation due to his own health problems.]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* The SEGA ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game has a sidequest in which you must steal a prototype cyber-heart for a mercenary who's body has been fitted with so much [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul cyberware]] that his regular heart is too weak to continue sustaining him.
* In ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'', [[spoiler: Providence convinced Director Erich Soders to betray the ICA in return for a heart transplant, as Soders has situs inversus (all of his organs are inverted when compared to a regular person), he requires an extremely rare "inverted" heart that only Providence can procure (with a shotgun and a beer cooler).]]
* ''Videogame/{{Rimworld}}:'' Since the game smooths over incompatibilities, getting one of your colonists a new organ to replace a failing one (damaged hearts, cirrhosis-melted livers, chemically-damaged kidneys, cancer and bullet-afflicted organs) is as simple as ripping it out of another colonist. Or, better yet, one of the many Raiders that will try to kill your colony. Indeed, you can replace your favorite pawn's clogged heart with that of some random space pirate that's barely alive after stepping on a landmine. [[OrganTheft And sell the other organs to the next trader]].

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChillyBeach'' had Dale's estranged brother show up out of the blue and mention that he needs a kidney. Dale is quite reluctant to go through with it, however, a guy gives him a shout-down for letting his brother die. As it turns out, Dale's incompatible with his brother. [[spoiler:[[PlayedForLaughs Frank, on the other hand...]]]]
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', John Force (the head of the National Hot Rod Association) needs a kidney transplant and Dale is a compatible donor. Then it turns out that John was completely fine but Hank (who is holding Dale's Power of Attorney) is told by the doctors that there is a little boy who ''can'' use the kidney but Hank hesitates. When asked who would even think of hesitating to save a little boy's life Hank replies "Dale would". Fortunately, Dale ends up giving the little boy his kidney anyway.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Grandpa's kidneys burst, and he eventually wheedles one out of Homer. It's lampshaded that "You've dramatically shortened your lifespan so someone else can enjoy a few more short years of life." The episode ends with Homer patting one of Bart's kidneys...
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Kyle becomes seriously ill when one of his kidneys fails. His mission to get hold of one is hampered by a sudden craze for [[SnakeOilSalesman alternative medicine]], leaving all the adults in the town dismissive of his ailment. Worse, the only potential donor with a compatible blood type is Cartman, who takes [[ComedicSociopathy great pleasure in the idea of watching him die]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': Dr. Venture finds himself in need of two kidneys after he wakes up in a tubful of ice and a [[OrganTheft kidney-shaped set of stitches]] in his back. He ends up taking [[spoiler: one from each of his sons, who have been cloned multiple times because each keeps dying in some stupid fashion]].
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', Kid Flash needs to deliver a heart to a dying girl, who happens to be royalty, by running cross country during a massive attack by a group of ice-themed villains.

[[folder: Real Life]]
* When [[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA NBA player]] Alonzo Mourning needed a new kidney, he got countless offers from his fans to get a new kidney; Mourning told them to register their names with the Red Cross instead, and is currently lobbying for legislation to make it easier for others to get new kidneys.[[note]]Unlike most transplants, kidney transplants can (and usually do) use living donors. While humans are normally born with two kidneys, they can function fully normally with only one (as evidenced by otherwise normal people who were born with only one).[[/note]]

* In one episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' Londo ends up needing a blood transfusion, but has a very rare blood type. He is saved by a transfusion from his wife Timov (Who stated that blood type was the ''only'' thing they had in common). While she gets Dr Franklin to promise to not say where the blood came from, the novels about Londo's [[spoiler:reign as Emperor]] state that he eventually figured it out.

[[folder: Film]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero'', where Mr Freeze's wife Nora will die without an organ transplant. They get through the movie without ever specifying which organ it is that she needs; it's implied that she needs several. [[spoiler: It turns out a compatible donor... happens to be Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl. By the end of the movie, Nora is saved, thanks to Wayne Enterprise assistance.]]

* One of the subplots in ''Film/MercenariesFromHongKong'' has one of the mercenaries, Sergeant Tai, needing to raise funds for his little IllGirl daughter, who needs a kidney transplant in an expensive procedure available only in the US which Tai cannot afford (hence his acceptance of a SuicideMission). Unfortunately the Sergeant dies partway through the film, and it's up to his best friend, the protagonist Luo Li to continue his mission.

* "The Goldberg Variation" of ''Series/TheXFiles'' has a boy whose liver doesn't work well (Scully diagnosed him just by looking at him), and he needs either a transplant or to get in a special treatment program in England. He's got a rare blood type and further complications. [[spoiler:He makes it through. The Mafioso of the week was a perfect match and got killed near the end of the episode (this ContrivedCoincidence was justified as the Mystery of the Week involved a man who was BornLucky.]]

* "The Goldberg Variation" of ''Series/TheXFiles'' has a boy whose liver doesn't work well (Scully diagnosed him just by looking at him), and he needs either a transplant or to get in a special treatment program in England. He's got a rare blood type and further complications. [[spoiler:He makes it through. The Mafioso of the week was a perfect match and got killed near the end of the episode.]]

* In ''Manga/TokyoBabylon'', an IllBoy named Yuya had an unidentified kidney disorder, which had already killed his twin older sister Maya. Even though his condition kept worsening to the point of emergency surgery he was ''still'' on the waiting list, so Subaru eventually decides to donate his own kidney to Yuya. [[spoiler:He arrives just after Yuya's taken to emergency surgery again, and Yuya's unnamed mother flips out and attacks him. Seishiro blocks the knife, and Subaru is too upset to do anything. The plotline is never resolved.]]

** There's an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' where the villain is giving away his organs to people he feels deserve it, and killing them (in such a way that the organ can be transplanted into someone else) if they don't live up to the "bargain". In the end [[spoiler: they get him to confess in exchange for allowing him to continue donating his organs while in prison]].

** There was a black bone/tissue market discovered in one episode. Strange objects were found inside corpses. They were used to replace the harvested organs.
* ''{{Series/CSINY}}'''s episode "Live or Let Die" is this trope, with the variation that it was the doctor's wife needing the liver. He orchestrates a medical helicopter hijacking and kills several people in the process. Mac is naturally not amused, especially recalling his own pain and loss, and tells the guy he will likely be in prison when his wife dies.

Related tropes: BloodTransfusionPlot, OrganTheft, CloningBlues (when the clones end up being a source of new organs).

* When [[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA NBA player]] Alonzo Mourning needed a new kidney, he got countless offers from his fans to get a new kidney; Mourning told them to register their names with the Red Cross instead, and is currently lobbying for legislation to make it easier for others to get new kidneys.[[note]]Unlike most transplants, kidney transplants can use living donors. While humans are normally born with two kidneys, they can function fully normally with only one (as evidenced by otherwise normal people who were born with only one).[[/note]]

* When [[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA NBA player]] Alonzo Mourning needed a new kidney, he got countless offers from his fans to get a new kidney; Mourning told them to register their names with the Red Cross instead, and is currently lobbying for legislation to make it easier for others to get new kidneys.[[note]]Unlike most transplants, kidney transplants can use living donors. While humans are normally born with two kidneys, they can function fully normally with only one (as evidenced by otherwise normal people who were born with only one).[[/labelnote]]

* When [[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA NBA player]] Alonzo Mourning needed a new kidney, he got countless offers from his fans to get a new kidney; Mourning told them to register their names with the Red Cross instead, and is currently lobbying for legislation to make it easier for others to get new kidneys.

* When [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] player Alonzo Mourning needed a new kidney, he got countless offers from his fans to get a new kidney; Mourning told them to register their names with the Red Cross instead, and is currently lobbying for legislation to make it easier for others to get new kidneys.
* One of those sidebar stories in the Reader's Digest tells the tale of a woman who received a heart transplant and (unknowingly) struck up a romance with the grieving widower, wondering why he'd always caress her chest where her heart lay.
* Controversy surrounded baseball great Mickey Mantle in 1995 when he received a liver transplant. The objections were: 1.) Alcoholism and hard living had destroyed his first liver, but 2.) He received the transplant after a short wait, jumping ahead of others who had been waiting much longer, and 3.) He died soon afterward anyway.

* In ''TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'', it's revealed that Vincent Leung married his wife to avoid suspicion of organ trafficking or unsavory reasons when he donated her his kidney. Seems like a case of Thou Doth Protest Too Much.

* In ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'', [[spoiler: Providence convinced Director Erich Solders to betray the ICA in return for a heart transplant, as Soders has situs inversus (all of his organs are inverted when compared to a regular person), he requires an extremely rare "inverted" heart that only Providence can procure (with a shotgun and a beer cooler).]]

** There's an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' where the villain is giving away his organs to people he feels deserve it, and killing them (in such a way that the organ can be transplanted into someone else) if they stop whatever project or behavior he feels made them deserve it. In the end [[spoiler: they get him to confess in exchange for allowing him to continue donating his organs while in prison]].

* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Life Time" deals with a soldier who needs an aorta for his heart, and will either die or wind up paralyzed if not treated within a certain amount of time. They can get a suitable replacement, but it involves BJ waiting around for a fatally wounded soldier to die, which the soldier's buddy does ''not'' appreciate.

* ''{{Series/CSINY}}'''s episode "Live And Let Die" is this trope, with the variation that it was the doctor's wife needing the liver. He orchestrates a medical helicopter hijacking and kills several people in the process. Mac is naturally not amused, especially recalling his own pain and loss and tells the guy he will likely be in prison when his wife dies.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': Dr. Venture finds himself in need of two kidneys after he wakes up in a tubful of ice and a [[OrganTheft kidney-shaped set of stitches]] in his back. (He ends up taking [[spoiler: one from each of his sons, who have been cloned multiple times because each keeps dying in some stupid fashion]].
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', Kid Flash needs to deliver a heart to a dying girl, who happens to be royalty, by running cross country during a massive attack by a group of ice themed villains.