Weill Cornell Medical College: How can we allow living kidney donation?

[Clark]

http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/allow-living-donation.html

When initially considering living kidney donation, one may consider the question of how or why the medical profession would allow someone to undergo surgery to donate a kidney to give to someone else in need of a transplant. Many studies have been performed to assess the risks of kidney donation on the people who made the choice to become a donor.

The majority of studies have found that:

The risk to a donor's physical health is minimal in both the short-term (surrounding the surgery) and long-term (in terms of kidney function, high blood pressure, and the donors lifespan).
Kidney donors tend to have higher quality of life scores after donation, as compared to the general population.
Donors have similar or improved psychosocial health after donation.
The overwhelming majority of donors would choose to donate again.
Visit our Living Donation Reference Center to find out more about the studies supporting the above statements.

http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/reference-center.html

For those interested in learning more about living donation, the pages linked at the right contain links to publications/topics that may be of interest. To read the abstracts of these articles, click on the title of the paper. The full-text of the articles are available for free for those indicated as free full-text.

Consensus Statements/Guidelines For Living Kidney Donation
http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/guidelines.html

Medical Outcomes and Complications
http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/medical-outcomes-complications.html

Pregnancy After Kidney Donation
http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/pregnancy_after_donation.html

Psychological, Ethical and Socioeconomic Considerations
http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/psychological-ethical-socioeconomic.html

Quality of Life
http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/quality-of-life.html

Surgical Outcomes and Complications
http://www.cornellsurgery.org/patients/services/livingdonor/surgical-outcomes-complications.html