Altruistic kidney donors in Israel

 The Forward has the story

Why Israel has more altruistic kidney donors than any other country in the world By Michele Chabin

"Israel is in the bottom half of countries when it comes to organs harvested after death, the type used in most transplants globally. ...

"But ...for more than a decade the number of Israelis who have donated kidneys while they are still alive and well has increased to the point that Israel is the worldwide leader in live donations per capita.

"That’s in large part thanks to the Jerusalem-based nonprofit ... Matnat Chaim, Hebrew for “gift of life,” which recruits and encourages individuals in good health to donate a kidney for purely altruistic reasons. 

"Of the more than 1,450 live kidney donations Matnat Chaim has facilitated, more than 80% percent were altruistic – donated by individuals who had no connection to the recipient. According to the group’s records, it made at least half of the matches between recipients and live donors in Israel from 2015 to 2022.

"Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber, whose life was saved by kidney from a live donor, founded Matnat Chaim in 2009 with his wife Rachel. Rabbi Heber, who died from COVID-19 in April 2020, had said he was moved to recruit volunteer donors after watching other kidney patients die for lack of transplants. 

"On Israel Independence Day this spring, Rachel Heber was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize in honor of the couple’s lifesaving work. 

...

Broadly speaking, the medical definition says that death occurs when the brain is no longer functioning, even if the heart is still beating. There are exceptions, but most ultra-Orthodox rabbis say death occurs when the heart stops beating and the person stops breathing.

“The problem is, if you wait until the heart stops, you can’t harvest the organs,” said Judy Singer, Matnat Chaim’s assistant director.

"For these reasons, Heber made it his mission to recruit live kidney donors.

"With other groups, including the Halachic Organ Donor Society and the Israel Transplant Authority, Matnat Chaim has convinced many religious Jewish communities to encourage members to donate altruistically. “Today, religious Jews, and haredim especially, are at the forefront of live kidney donations,” Singer said. “They say, I can’t donate an organ after death, but take my kidney and help someone now.”About 90% percent of Matnat Chaim’s kidney donors belong to the Modern Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox streams of Judaism.

“That number used to be 97%, but we’re always looking to increase the number of secular donors and Arab donors,” Singer said.

"The group has arranged for “many” Arab Israelis to receive transplants, she said, but did not share numbers for those recipients. Matnat Chaim is looking to work with an Arab group or individual to increase the number of Arab donors and recipients in the future, she added.

...

"According to the Ministry of Health, 656 transplants were carried out in Israel in 2022. Of those about half — 326 — came from living donors. By comparison in the U.S. that same year, about 15% of all organ donations came from living donors.

"Though transplant rates have been rising in both countries, many are still dying for lack of a donor. In Israel, 77 people died waiting for one in 2022."