Are your kidneys available to me? - Eleventh in a series

We’re tackling a number of questions that Christians should ask about live kidney donation.

Some were posed at the end of the fifth post of this series, and we have not yet addressed three of them:

• How would changing our laws to permit payment for human organs affect our society?
• Would payment for organs be supported or opposed in Christian doctrine?
• What types of questions in the Christian life are bonafide matters for individual conscience?

And in the previous post, we ended with this question:

• In some cases, would God approve of live kidney donation?

If as Christians we determine that live kidney donation is contrary to God’s perfect will for our lives in every case, then we do not need to wonder if payment for organs would be OK with God. We could study how that might affect our society, but only from a negative perspective.

Perhaps we can never agree on what the bonafide issues for individual conscience are, but could kick off a great debate.

So, can God ever approve of live kidney donation? God does permit it, but that does not signify it is his perfect will. With many things, he allows us to proceed, though we are walking in our own way. A theological discussion of that is here, which spotlights this Scripture: Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God-what is good and well-pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2).

How does one renew his mind? Reading the Bible, prayer, Christian fellowship, church attendance, keeping the Sabbath to rest and worship; all these play a role. Perhaps you could add to this list in the comments section.

It is still possible that Christians doing all these things will arrive at different conclusions. We inch along in our walk with Christ, holding one viewpoint at a certain stage in our spiritual growth, and changing later on.

Christians are not a monolith, but a mosaic, living stones being built up into a spiritual house. (1Pe 2:5) Such work takes long suffering.

Wonderful, sincere physicians and scientists have been and are involved in seeking ways to improve the quality of life through organ transplantation. How could anyone fault them for their natural curiosity and diligent labor to find ways to make transplantation successful? Why would anyone do that?

By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/be/07/ae498371cfd18c7f616d656b28d2.jpg Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0029417.html, CC BY 4.0, Link

Perhaps the answer is: life extension for the recipient should not outweigh consideration of risks for the donor. We know there are risks and consequences for the donor, so the question becomes: Is risking one’s health and life to possibly save or improve a human life what God would want a person to do?

We have looked at the various risks to this procedure, and a related question is: What are the chances or probabilities of incurring these risks? It is stated on various websites: The risk of problems from surgery is less than 5%, that is 1 in 20 donors, and the risk of death is 1 in 3000 donors, less than 1%. (ref) However, as brought out on Livingdonor101.com, the actual statistics are unknown:

We have NO comprehensive data on living donor health and well-being. The Secretary of health mandated one year of follow-up on all living donors in 2000, but the centers have been so noncompliant that a 2009 report said the database was woefully incomplete and useless for research or analysis. In 2013, OPTN admitted that 35% of LKDs were reported "lost" to follow-up with no indication contact was attempted….
According to OPTN, 4.4 living kidney donors die every year in the US within 12 months of donating. AND 20% of living kidney donors experience complications. Some require surgical intervention and/or lifelong maintenance. (ref)

So, first a prospective donor must choose whose data to believe. Or, we could ask, is it right for a donor to accept any level of risk? It is a certainty that the person who donates a kidney is taking a risk with his own health and future quality of life. Each one would know how this may affect those close to him.

Is this comparable to a civilian entering the military or police force? He or she knows that in duty there is risk of injury or death, yet they agree to this, ideally because they desire to protect the national interests of the USA and to preserve our country. Likewise, the living donor realizes there are risks, but desires to preserve or lengthen the life of the recipient.

We know that people feel called to serve in the military, but what about there being a call to donate a kidney? Could a Christian hear a call from God to donate a kidney? Perhaps only the person who has actually experienced the situation could answer this.

Analogies can confuse rather than clarify. The Military is not analogous to the Medical Profession. To conflate the two through clever comparisons will be a big waste of time. Suffice to say, our world is set up so that a military or police commander has the right to send his underlings into the fray, but a doctor is not empowered nor trained to send his patient into harm’s way unless to restore his health such as through radiation therapy. Though in extreme cases, as a last ditch measure, new therapies may be tried to save a life that instead end it, as a rule, doctors do not take risks with their patients’ lives.

On the websites encouraging live kidney donation, we see this question: What are the risks and benefits?

What are the benefits? The only benefit is the happy feeling that one has helped another to have a better quality of life. (ref) On the Living Kidney Donors Network, ALL of the benefits noted apply to the recipient! (ref) On the Johns Hopkins Medicine site we are told: There are many benefits to becoming a living donor. One of the most obvious benefits is that you can save a life, or drastically improve the quality of life for the recipient. The only other benefit listed is: Many living donors experience positive feelings of life and joy. (ref) Those are not MANY benefits.

If a doctor were to advise a patient to donate a kidney, then he is suggesting that he should take a risk with his health. He is not adhering to the Hippocratic Oath to “Do no harm” nor the Christian ethic to “Do unto others…”.

And what about the donor: Isn’t the donor doing unto others as he would have them to do to him?

If that is his motivation, then he hopes others would risk their health to help him out in a dire need which is not a Christian ethic. Is he not, rather, bypassing the Golden Rule to achieve a good work that he could not advise others to do?

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