Kidney donation may be one of the most admirable and heroic things many people can do for another. I too have had family with renal failure (though I was not a

Kidney donation may be one of the most admirable and heroic things many people can do for another. I too have had family with renal failure (though I was not a match), and the potential to simply fix it with a match is wonderful. But anyone considering it should internalize upfront that there are potential real long term risks, and a surprising paucity of data since long term outcomes are apparently not rigorously followed. See for example "At 18 years old, he donated a kidney. Now, he regrets it"[0]. It's very much not to discourage anyone, but it'd be a shame to not go in with eyes wide open and have what should be something to be proud of marred by any feelings of deception. I have definitely seen the lack of hard long term data on real risks of kidney donation downplayed, it's not fair to portray "we don't see high risks" when that's because we just don't see much period. "Going to the top of the donation wait-list" for example is good, but there is in fact still a wait list. All that said, the positive vs negative ratio certainly still appears high depending on the situation. And developments like the one in this article could also reasonably factor into an individuals analysis, after all in 20-30 years it may be a solved problem with high quality synthetic organs, so a young person giving a kidney now is more helping to bridge the gap, and by the time they themselves might have an issue they'll have saved a life yet not have the same trouble. Even so, donators should fully recognize that, all of them should absolutely feel as good about it as you clearly do. ---- 0: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-18-years-old-he-donated-a-kidney-now-he-regrets-it/2016/09/30/cc9407d8-5ff9-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-18...