Nonaltruistic kidney donations in contemporary jewish law and ethics

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In 2000, the Consensus Statement on the Live Organ Donor reported that "direct financial compensation for an organ from a living donor remains controversial and illegal in the United States" and took note of the position of the Transplantation Society that "Organs and tissue should be given without commercial consideration or commercial profit." Christian authorities insist that organ donors must not accrue economic advantage, and "selling" organs deprives the donation of its ethical quality. METHODS: The writings of major contemporary authorities of Jewish law and ethics whose halakhic positions on bioethical issues are regularly considered by Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform ethicists were reviewed. Their positions on this issue were contrasted with those of various contemporary secular and religious authorities. RESULTS: These Jewish authorities reject the notion that generosity and charity, rather than monetary gain and greed, must serve as the exclusive basis for donation of functioning organs. CONCLUSION: Although nonaltruistic sale of kidneys may be theoretically ethical, ultimately its ethical status in Jewish ethics and law is inextricably connected to solving a series of pragmatic programs, such as creating a system that ensures that potential vendors and donors are properly informed and not exploited. Lacking such arrangements, ethical nonaltruistic kidney donations remain but a theoretical possibility.