Exploring the motives of Israeli Jews who were living kidney donors to strangers

Abstract

Non‐directed living donors are individuals who donate a kidney to a recipient with whom they have neither a genetic nor emotional relationship. Israel legalized this type of donation in 2008. After this law was implemented, living donations significantly expanded. The aim of this article was to determine the motivations, characteristics, and perioperative experiences of non‐directed living donors in Israel. Three online questionnaires (own questionnaire, Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale (RSES), Rushton Self‐Report Altruism Scale) were distributed to 180 Jewish kidney donors with the help of Matnat Chaim organization. One hundred and fifteen responses were received (69.3% response rate). The motivation for most donors (60%) was a strong willingness to help and a desire to do good. The majority of donors (78.3%) reported their health status as unchanged after donation; however, 16.5% experienced clinical problems (eg, wound infection, more pain than expected), and 5.2% experienced psychological complications. About 18% reported their health to improve after donation. Most (80%) inspired someone else to also become a kidney donor. This study breaks the myth that Jews do not support organ donation. In fact, their high level of altruism and their positive experience with donation has propelled the practice of non‐directed donation in Israel.

Factors Associated with the Willingness to Become a Living Kidney Donor: A National Cross-Sectional Study

“…However, it is worth mentioning that the willingness to donate a kidney to another person is not equivalent to becoming a donor. On the other hand, data from the Orthodox Jewish community indicate, that kidney donors were mostly men [11,34]. Study by Maple et al [35], Faber et al [14] and Al.…”

A Way to Improve Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction: School Altruistic Group Games

“…There were five themes in the SAGGs: social responsibility, interpersonal trust, sociality, empathy, and negative emotion regulation. The first four themes are the four elements of altruism ( Rushton et al, 1981 ; Bartczak, 2015 ; Lu et al, 2019b ; Kurleto et al, 2020 ). Each theme lasted for 2 weeks.…”

“…Altruism explains why people voluntarily sacrifice their time, money, and even their kidneys to help strangers ( Einolf, 2010 ; Kurleto et al, 2020 ). Altruism is a long-lasting tendency to help non-relatives without any material return, such as volunteer service and charitable donation ( Andreoni, 1990 ).…”

“…Altruism is concerned with the well-being of others ( Oliner and Oliner, 1988 ). On the basis of previous studies, Lu et al (2019b) pointed out that scholars in both the West and the East agreed that altruism includes the following three core ideas: first, altruists hope to increase the well-being of others; second, altruists do not ask for any return, and their altruistic behavior is entirely voluntary; and third, altruism includes four elements: social responsibility, interpersonal trust, loyalty, and sociality, which are consistent in different situations ( Rushton et al, 1981 ; Bartczak, 2015 ; Lu et al, 2019b ; Kurleto et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Finally, sociality is the fourth element of altruism ( Bartczak, 2015 ; Kurleto et al, 2020 ). Sociality is the tendency to enjoy getting along with others rather than being alone ( Cheek and Buss, 1981 ).…”