Our primary focus is living kidney donation because there are over 95,000 people (82 percent of the National Transplant Waiting List) in the U.S. waiting for a kidney.
Living organ donation first emerged in 1954, when a kidney from one twin was successfully transplanted into his brother. It has become an increasingly important way to help confront the shortage of organs available for transplants, reduce wait times for recipients, and give people a second chance at a fuller, more independent life.
Directed
Donors specify to whom they want to donate an organ. They can include biological relatives; a biologically unrelated individual connected to the potential recipient, such as a spouse, friend, or co-worker; or a biologically unrelated person who has heard about someone in need of a transplant.
Non-directed (altruistic)
Donors give to an anonymous recipient on the national waiting list. Altruistic donors may also participate in a kidney chain. In a kidney chain your kidney is transplanted into a recipient who had a donor willing to give a kidney, but whose donor was not a match for them. This means your one donation can allow for many other donations to happen.
Paired
This involves two or more pairs of living kidney donors and recipients who are not medically compatible. The transplant candidates swap donors so that each receives an organ from someone with a matching blood type.