43,000 kidney failure patients die prematurely each year because of a transplant kidney shortage.

What is it about?

43,000 kidney failure patients die prematurely each year because of the shortage of transplant kidneys. This is the same death toll as from 85 fully loaded 747s crashing each year. The cumulative premature death toll from 1988 to 2017 was a horrendous 982,000. And if we extrapolate the trend over the past 10 years forward to the next 10 years, the death toll would increase by an additional 465,000.

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Why is it important?

This death toll is large enough to motivate everyone in the transplant community to begin to reduce the kidney shortage by taking the first step—to which no one seems to object—removing the disincentives to kidney donation. We should address the terrible premature death toll caused by the kidney shortage with a technology that is already available and proven—compensating donors for their kidneys. Any arguments against this approach (commodification, exploitation, etc.) must be weighed against this terrible death toll.