Volume 18, Number 1
July 2020
ARTICLE

Kidney Exchange and the Ethics of Giving

Volume 18, Number 1, July 2020, Pages 85–110
https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v18i1.895
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Abstract

The best treatment for end-stage renal disease is the transplantation of a live donor kidney, but many people cannot donate to their loved ones because they are incompatible. Kidney exchange promises relief. Kidney exchange programs use centralized procedures to match donors with recipients in a way that maximizes the quantity and quality of transplants. However, the transplant laws in many countries render kidney exchange programs impossible because of ethical concerns about these programs or about the kinds of kidney donations on which these programs rely. I give two novel arguments for the implementation of kidney exchange programs. The first is that they are instrumental in meeting a moral obligation, namely to donate effectively. The second is that they may increase the motivation for altruistic donations, because the donation of one kidney may trigger > 1 life savings. Moreover, ethical concerns are considered that are embodied in transplant laws preventing the implementation of kidney exchange, and it is argued that they can be overcome.
Copyright © 2020 Philippe van Basshuysen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
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