Shady organ donation group tried to harvest NJ man’s body parts — even though he wasn’t a registered organ donor

After a New Jersey man was declared brain dead, a shady organ donation group reportedly tried to harvest his body parts even though he never re-registered as an organ donor, telling his shocked family “it’s a lifetime contract.”

Keith Lott, 47, tragically died while while having sex with his wife, Brook, at their Swedesboro home on May 16, NJ.com reported. Paramedics attempted CPR and shocked his heart several times while they rushed Lott to a nearby hospital.

He was placed on a ventilator at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where doctors determined blood had stopped flowing through his body causing brain swelling.  

Three days later, doctors declared him brain dead.

Lott had recently converted to Islam after marrying his wife in 2023 — and after being placed on life support, needed to be buried within three days, according to Islamic law. 

In less than two hours after he was declared dead, reps from the NJ Sharing Network showed up at the hospital to harvest Lott’s organs.

“I didn’t want his body opened up like that,” Keith’s mother, Minnie Lott, told the outlet.

“Even separate from him being Muslim.”

Prior to switching religions Lott had signed up to be an organ donor on his Garden State driver’s license, but changed his mind when it was up for renewal in 2025 — as some Muslims believe the body should not be altered in life or death.

Yet the representatives callously told the family “when you check that box to be a donor, it’s a lifetime contract,” Keith’s sister-in-law, Tiffany Lott, said.

The NJ Sharing Network — one of two federally designated, nonprofit organ procurement groups in the Garden State — even allegedly threatened to take Lott’s family and hospital administrators to court.

Meanwhile, doctors and nurses at Cooper University were caught in the middle, the family said. 

“The nurse was saying, she’s like, ‘If I take him off (life support), I could be fired,’” Keith’s brother, Alex Lott, told the outlet.

While the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission does not maintain an organ donor registry, when a driver changes their donor status, it’s “immediately updated on their MVC record once the transaction is completed,” spokesperson William Connolly told the outlet. 

Even so, the standoff with the organization went on for a few days until Lott’s niece, an intern, called her boss — state Sen. Paul Moriarty.

“They basically told (the hospital) what they were doing was illegal,” she said Moriarty staffers told her.

Two hours after calling the lawmaker, the NJ Sharing Network allegedly said they planned “to release the body” to the family.

The group agreed that any drivers can change their organ donation status through the MVC and that the Network accesses the MVC database “in real time to verify the most up-to-date information regarding their organ donor status,” in a statement to NJ.com.

But the organization wouldn’t address why Lott’s 2025 renewal was ignored.

It’s not the first time they come under fire.

Whistleblowers have provided “evidence of fraud, cover-ups and illegal practices, including an instance where NJTO (NJ Sharing Network) proceeded with organ recovery from a patient showing signs of life,” according to the House Ways and Means Committee. 

Kirk Johnson, an assistant professor of Justice Studies and Medical Humanities at Montclair University blasted the organ donation group for acting unethical. 

“So the … claim ‘once you’re a donor, you’re a donor for life’ has no basis in New Jersey statute,” Johnson said.

“It is not only ethically untenable; it is legally wrong.”