There’s a severe kidney shortage. Should donors be compensated?
NPRThere’s a severe kidney shortage. “The kidney shortage is a solvable problem.” Perlman is executive director of Waitlist Zero, a coalition supporting newly proposed federal legislation that would create a 10-year pilot program called the End Kidney Deaths Act. Only 300 to 400 living donor kidneys come from “altruistic donors,” people who give one of their kidneys to someone they don’t know on the waitlist, says Perlman, who donated her kidney to a stranger in 2020. “Those who give kidneys to strangers are saving the people who are waiting the longest on the waitlist and are most likely to die from the kidney shortage,” Perlman says. “When something goes from being something which people give to being something that is bought, the givers stop giving.” He also worries that a U.S. program to incentivize living kidney donors could undermine global efforts to end the illicit organ trade.
History of this topic
Donating a kidney is even safer now than long thought, study shows
Hindustan TimesDonating a kidney is even safer now than long thought, US study shows
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