Kidney transplant donor sources - expanding the options and the debate

I can’t help but noticing that World Kidney Day came and went last week, and two items in particular caught my attention. In the New England Journal of Medicine (March 12, 2009), Rees and colleagues described a “chain of 10 kidney transplants initiated by a single altruistic donor (i.e. a donor without a designated recipient)” (1). This single act of generosity provoked a chain reaction whereby patients with willing but incompatible donors “swapped “with others in "paired transplant programs", the end-result being 10 kidney transplants over a period of 8 months. According to the authors of the report, their goal was to “highlight the potential of this strategy” of living donor recruitment.