Emergence of an Israel faith-based community organization facilitating live donor kidney transplantation

• Published in: BMC nephrology 2018-06, Vol.19 (1), p.128-128, Article 128
• Main Authors: Wasser, Walter G, Boner, Geoffrey, Koslowsky, Meni, Lazar, Adi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Altruism; Blood & organ donations; Brain death; Care and treatment; Chronic kidney failure; Community organization; Community Participation - methods; Community Participation - trends; Dialysis; Ethics; Faith-Based Organizations - trends; Female; Health aspects; Hemodialysis; Humans; Israel - epidemiology; Kidney diseases; Kidney transplant; Kidney transplantation; Kidney Transplantation - methods; Kidney Transplantation - trends; Kidney transplants; Living Donors - supply & distribution; Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon) (1135-1204); Male; Middle Aged; Nephrology; Organ donors; Patients; Prospective Studies; Quality of life; Systematic review; Tissue and Organ Procurement - methods; Tissue and Organ Procurement - trends; Tissue donation; Tourism; Transplants & implants; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1471-2369; 1471-2369
• DOI: 10.1186/s12882-018-0923-4

The 2014 Consensus Conference on Best Practices in Living Kidney Donations recognized live donor kidney transplantation as the best treatment for late-stage kidney disease, yielding superior graft and patient survival, improved quality of life, fewer requirements for dialysis and increased cost-effectiveness compared to deceased donor kidney transplantation. Yet in spite of the excellent results of living kidney donation, the annual number of living kidney donors is declining in many countries, including the United States. In Israel, a non-profit organization, Matnat Chaim ("Gift of Life" in Hebrew), a faith-based initiative, has emerged as a major force for arranging living donor kidney transplantation mainly by facilitating altruistic living unrelated donor transplantation. A retrospective review of the records of live kidney donations facilitated by the Matnat Chaim organization and referred to Israel transplant centers, since the organization's inception in 2009, was performed and compared to published data from the Israel Ministry of Health. Matnat Chaim has facilitated 494 live kidney donations since its founding in February 2009 until the end of 2017. Of the 124 live kidney transplants performed in 2016, 111 (90%) were shown to be altruistic and unrelated. This large number of donations was associated with a doubling of the total number of kidney transplantations, performed in Israel (data published by the Israel Ministry of Health). The success of an Israel community organization in the promotion of kidney transplantation may serve as a model for other religious and non-religious communities worldwide.