Within the past 12 years, more than 63,000 patients in the United States have died waiting for a kidney transplant, while more than 100,000 currently remain on the transplant list. Meanwhile, the amount of living kidney donors in 2015 only reached a little over 5,000. Now, a new study from the University of Florida College of Medicine suggests offering compensation to living donors could increase the likelihood of kidney donations, which is currently prohibited.
In a survey of 1,011 registered voters, 59 percent of respondents would be more likely to donate a kidney if offered $50,000, while 32 percent of respondents were indifferent. The report also supports the concept by citing other paid medical procedures, such as egg and sperm donation. In addition to the data about compensation, 91 percent of respondents said they would be open to donating one of their kidneys to a family member or a stranger.
The study’s authors stress that while they are not suggesting that a paid kidney market be created anytime soon, this concept and other methods should continue to be studied as potential ways to end donor shortages. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery, can be found here.
