Kidney Donation: Forbidden, Permissible or Obligation?

 

Question:

Is it permissible to be a kidney donor?

If I am a kidney match and asked to donate a kidney, am I obliged to donate?

Is it a mitzvah to do so knowing that you are potentially saving someone’s life?

 

Answer:

It’s a big mitzvah, but not obligatory.

 

Explanation:

Donating a Live Kidney in our days is considered a safe procedure, but not without a slight risk.

The risk is composed of two elements: complications from the surgery itself, and the fact that the donor has only one kidney remaining which could lead to health complications should it fail Ch”V.

Medical data has shown that these risks are extremely low. Advances in transplantation medicine have led to a great decrease in risk to live kidney donors. Studies have also shown that there is little, if any, long-term danger to a healthy person with no familial history of renal failure that only has one kidney.

Therefore, donating a live kidney from a fully healthy person (with no family history of kidney disease etc.), is permissible and it is a big Mitzvah! However, it is not obligatory.

 

Please see all the references at the following links:

 

 

#2466(b)