Survey Finds Widespread Interest In Living Organ Donation

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One in four Americans say they would consider donating a kidney to a stranger while still alive, according to a national survey paid for by the National Kidney Foundation.

That number may exaggerate the actual potential of living organ donation, experts say, but there's no question that more and more Americans are giving up a kidney, and increasingly, a piece of their liver. The rise is fueled by the acute shortage in organs from people who have died and improved medical techniques.

The kidney foundation survey, released Thursday, found widespread interest in the living donation, with 90 percent of American adults saying they would consider donating a kidney or a part of another organ to a family member.

Half of those surveyed said they'd consider it for a friend, and one in four said they'd consider it for a stranger.

There were 4,627 living donors last year, a 7 percent increase in living donations over 1998. While the vast majority of donors gave up a kidney, the number of living liver donations tripled last year.

Donations from people who died -- known as cadaveric donors -- remained virtually unchanged.

Much of the increase in living donation is from donors not related to the patient, with these donations tripling between 1989 and 1998.

"It first started with just brothers and sisters, and then parents and children, and then it started branching out to spouses. This is almost the next step," said Ellie Schlam, a spokeswoman for the National Kidney Foundation.

Paul Brewer, 52, heard at church that a woman needed a new kidney and decided to get tested to be a donor.

"I got to talking to my wife and I said I can't let her suffer like that," said Brewer, a meter reader for the gas company in Whiteford, Maryland.

He was particularly struck that the woman in need, Joyce Thomas, was 42 years old and the mother of two sons -- Brewer's mother was the same age when she died of cancer.

"I said the boys aren't going to be without a mother if I have anything to do with it," Brewer said.

The surgery was in 1995 and both Thomas and Brewer are in good health.

However, while many people say they are interested in donation, that doesn't necessarily translate into actual donation.

Large numbers of people tell pollsters they would like to be an organ donor if they died, and yet only half of the families asked to donate their loved one's organs say yes.

"People don't want to appear negative in the eyes of the person asking the question," said David Fleming, executive director of the Coalition on Donation, which promotes organ donation.

Still, Fleming said, increased interest in living donation is real. About a year ago, he said, his organization began receiving calls from people interested in donating to strangers who needed organs. The group now receives between 12 and 15 such calls each month

"Random people calling and saying 'I'd like more information about it,"' he said.

The kidney foundation's survey of 1,000 adults was conducted in January and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2000 Cable News Network.

This article posted June 28, 2000.