Altruistic or Living Organ and Tissue Donation
Most living organ donors are relatives of the person receiving the transplant (e.g. a parent, brother or sister). Recent advances in medicine have also made it possible for people who are not related to the person who needs a transplant (eg a spouse, partner or friend) to make a donation. Living donation by a relative or friend is called directed donation.  If you are thinking of making a living donation, your doctor can give you more information.

Living donation can also be non-directed
Donations of bone marrow by volunteers are a common form of this type of donation.  Non-directed kidney donation is a new practice worldwide. It is still rare in Australia and is only possible at some Australian hospitals. In these cases, a person decides to donate a kidney to help whoever is on the waiting list. The donor has no say in who will or will not receive the kidney. Care is taken to protect the privacy of this type of donor.

Can I donate my kidney to a stranger? 
Non-directed live donation is a new form of living donation.  It means being a live kidney donor to a complete stranger.  Someone donates a kidney and allows it to be given to the most suitable recipient on the transplant waiting list. As this is a very serious decision, you may need to talk about it with your family and friends, doctor, renal transplant nurse, social worker or counsellor. Policies and guidelines are currently being developed in some states of  Australia.

Can I buy or sell a kidney? 
Trade in human organs and tissue is illegal in Australia and also ethically unacceptable.  Anyone involved would face criminal charges. The illegal buying of organs overseas raises the risks of recipients contacting blood born diseases, complications or even death. 

Recommended reading and references

An Introduction to Kidney Transplantation - from Renal Resource Centre NSW

Kidney Donation by Live Donors  NSW Department of Health
Live kidney donation is a gift. A gift by choice and not by chance. It is a gift of a normal functioning kidney from one living human being to another. This guide provides information about the process of live kidney donation to people who are thinking about becoming kidney donors.

File link: Kidney Donation by Live Donors Type: Guideline
Date of Publication: 1 October 2004  SHPN: 040163  ISBN: 0734737092

Making a Decision about Living Organ and Tissue Donation
Derived from "Living Organ and Tissue Donation: Guidelines for Ethical Practice for Health Professionals"  developed by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), reading this document may help you think through some ethical issues and make decisions about living organ and tissue donation.

Other publications provided for the community and specialist information for researchers, clinicians and other health professionals on the NHMRC website are listed at  www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/subjects/organ.htm 

Perioperative Mortality and Long-term Survival Following Live Kidney Donation 

JAMA.2010;303(10):959-966
Dorry L Segev MD PhD; Abimereki D Muzaale MD MPH; Brian S Caffo PhD; Shruti H Mehta PhD; Andrew L Singer MD PhD; Sarah E Taranto; Maureen A McBride, PhD; Robert A. Montgomery, MD, DPhil 

Context  More than 6000 healthy US individuals every year undergo nephrectomy for the purposes of live donation; however, safety remains in question because longitudinal outcome studies have occurred at single centers with limited generalizability.

Objectives  To study national trends in live kidney donor selection and outcome, to estimate short-term operative risk in various strata of live donors, and to compare long-term death rates with a matched cohort of nondonors who are as similar to the donor cohort as possible and as free as possible from contraindications to live donation.

Main Outcome Measures  Surgical mortality and long-term survival.

Conclusion  Among a cohort of live kidney donors compared with a healthy matched cohort, the mortality rate was not significantly increased after a median of 6.3 years.

Relevant websites of interest

Australian Bone Marrow Registry 
Could I be a Living Donor - from Transplant UK 

Quick Links to info on KHA website

KHA Health Fact Sheets  I  Deciding about live donation  I  Kidney Transplantation  I  Life with a single kidney  I  Live Donation   I  Organ and tissue donation and transplantation