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PRACTICE: Annabel Ferriman Becoming a live kidney donor BMJ 2008; 336: 1374-1376 [Full text]

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Could you or I give a kidney to somebody we didn't know?

Richard Smith   (13 June 2008)

Many motivations for live kidney donation

Sue R Roff   (14 June 2008)

Could you or I give a kidney to somebody we didn't know? 13 June 2008
Richard Smith, Director Ovations Chronic Disease Initiative Send response to journal: Re: Could you or I give a kidney to somebody we didn't know?	Thank you, Annabel, for a great article. It's very you--expressing your generosity, spontaneity, unstuffiness, and impatience with bureaucracy and cant. I like to imagine you after the night before thinking: "Oh my God. Did I really offer a kidney? I must cut back on the zinfandel." Everybody reading your article who still has two kidneys will think: "Could I do the same?" I like to think that I could. I'm sure that I could do it for my family and for a close friend. But beyond that? I'm not sure. It's a big step up from giving blood or all your organs after death. Competing interests: None declared
Many motivations for live kidney donation 14 June 2008
Sue R Roff, Senior Research Fellow Centre for Medical Education, Dundee Medical School DD LR. c Send response to journal: Re: Many motivations for live kidney donation	Unrelated and 'stranger'live kidney donation is motivated by many considerations, as I report in my paper "Self-interest, self-abnegation and self esteem: towards new moral economy of non-directed kidney donation", Journal of Medical Ethics 2007 33(8)437-441. I am planning to publish a booklet next month that reports 7 live kidney donors' experiences at length in their own words, and puts them in the context of known patterns of donation and the follow-up studies of donor welfare. Called WHOSE KIDNEY IS IT NOW?, I hope it will be useful for those looking for donors and those considering donation. Certainly articles like Annabel Ferriman's are an important resource in helping people to make a decision now that the Human Tissues Acts permit non-directed donation. Sue Roff s.l.roff@dundee.ac.uk Competing interests: Roff was member of the Unrelated Live Transplants Regulatory Authority in its last three years, but these are purely personal views.