Quick Facts

"Any live donor, even if its a total mismatch is better than the best deceased donor," says Dr. Shield of St. Francis Hospital, Kansas, "Kidneys from a living donor are always healthier."

"Benefit to the Recipient" is the primary reason why the transplant industry is emphasizing living organ donations rather than prevention of end-stage renal failure, improving the quality of life on dialysis, or maximizing deceased donation by fixing the waitlist and eliminating geographical hording. Unfortunately, the industry tends to forget that living donors are people too, not just an organ incubator.

- 1/3 of persons on the national wait list are considered 'inactive', ineligible for surgery even if an organ does become available. 52% of deaths on the waitlist are of inactives (57)

- Hospitals/transplant centers charge $400,000 - $500,000 for liver transplant surgery.(64)

- Medicare pays an average of $106,000 for a transplant, regardless of whether the kidney comes from a living or deceased donor. And living donor transplants generally cost less -- about 15 to 20 percent less at the university hospital, for example. That means the hospital stands to make 15 to 20 percent more per surgery.(97) 

- It is illegal in the U.S. to accept payment of any kind for an organ. However, NOTA 1984 states that reasonable payments for expenses related to travel, wages lost and housing incurred during living donation is permissible. 

- Studies have shown that up to 40% of living donors do not have health insurance. Consequently, they skip out on follow-up care, and will not see a physician when they experience a complication or problem due to the transplant. Consequently, complications from living donation are severely underreported.

- There is no law in the U.S. preventing insurance companies from denying coverage based on living donation.** They consider the procedure 'elective' and the lack of a kidney a 'pre-existing condition'. NY Attorney General released the following statement allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to living donors in 2008.

 - Livers are the only organs that regenerate. A living donor's remaining kidney will hypertrophy, but will never regain pre-donation kidney function. 

- Living donor organ donations make up approximately 38% of all transplanted organs in the U.S.

- A 2004 World Transplant Consortium admitted that some physicians will not report a medical issue as a consequence of living donorship out of fear of retribution for the donor from their insurance company.

-The shortage of organs is so prevalent, transplant centers are coaching would-be recipients on how to solicit an organ. Some people have turned to posting ads on CraigsList or other donor matching websites (including paired exchanges) for a living donor.

A survey published in 2007 in the American Journal of Transplantation found that only 30% of transplant programs will evaluate publicly solicited donors due to their controversial nature.

Another report stipulates that only 10% of transplant centers will consider a kidney from a donor that is not related or known by the recipient, although that is changing rapidly.

**Source: Insurability of Living Organ Donors: A Systematic Review. R. C. Yang, et al. American Journal of Transplantation (2007) 7:6, 1542-1551.

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