The beauty of the gift: the wonder of living organ donation
- 2 July 2007
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Wiley in Clinical Transplantation
- Vol. 21 (4), 435-440
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-0012.2007.00746.x
Abstract
In a recent opinion piece, Nancy Scheper-Hughes provides a sweeping indictment of living organ donation, even in cases where the gift is directed to a close family member. She describes the process with caustic powerful phrases such as "sacrificial violence" and a "call to 'self-sacrifice.'" She concludes that living organ donation "should be consigned to a back seat as an exceptional back-up to deceased donation." But her conclusions are based on anecdotes and data that are not representative of donor practice and motivation in the United States and other developed countries. At reputable transplant centers great care is taken to identify genuine volunteers and to protect their interests. Under these circumstances living organ donation remains a generally safe and beneficial procedure for the donor as well as the recipient, and a wonderful example of the goodness of people.Keywords
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- Guidelines for the Psychosocial Evaluation of Living Unrelated Kidney Donors in the United StatesAmerican Journal of Transplantation, 2007
- Organ Donation: The Gift, the Weight and the Tyranny of Good ActsAmerican Journal of Transplantation, 2007
- The Ethics Statement of the Vancouver Forum on the Live Lung, Liver, Pancreas, and Intestine DonorTransplantation, 2006
- Higher quality of life in living donor kidney transplantation: prospective cohort studyTransplant International, 2005
- Psychosocial impact of living-related kidney transplantation on donors and partnersPediatric Nephrology, 2004
- Twenty-Two Nondirected Kidney Donors: An Update on a Single Center's ExperienceAmerican Journal of Transplantation, 2004
- Motives for becoming a living kidney donorNephrology Dialysis Transplantation, 2004
- Is this live-organ donor your patient?Transplantation, 2003
- The nondirected live-kidney donor: ethical considerations and practice guidelinesTransplantation, 2002
- KIDNEY DONORS DON???T REGRETTransplantation, 2000