Thanks for sharing this! I donated with Be The Match as well, in March of 2020, which was interesting timing. They actually had to send me to a sister organization called Gift of Life, whose staff was amazing as well. I had preciously started the process to donate a kidney and then let the ball drop and forgotten about it. The call from Be The Match was such a specific call to action: âYouâve been identified as a possible marrow match for a 57-year-old Male in need of a transplant. The patientâs doctor is trying to determine treatment options as quickly as possible.â My reaction was basically âoh my god, of course!â versus the kidney donation which was more like âeh this is mildly annoying right now Iâll just notâ since there was no single individual being called to my attention.
Interestingly enough, my experience donating stem cells was so rewarding that it reminded me of my previous attempt at kidney donation, and I restarted that process and donated my kidney later that year. I bet if you compared kidney donation rates between people in the bone marrow registry and people who have been matched and donated stem cells, youâd find a significant increase in the latter population.
Yeah the call out of the blue with someone effectively saying âwe need your help ASAP for someone in dire straits with a blood cancerâ was extremely morally clarifying. My reaction was essentially the same as yours. That was one of the reasons I felt uncomfortable trying do a traditional EA cost-effectiveness breakdown for this (although I have it in a private google doc) -- why wouldnât you just try to help save the other personâs life?
Donating right around the start of COVID lockdowns sounds like it would have been crazy! Iâm very glad to hear your donation went well and you took the leap with kidney donationâI hope you had a positive experience with that one too.
Some folks in the comments on Scott Alexanderâs piece on kidney donation were speculating that you would have an easier time getting kidney donations if there was some sort of similar matching process like for bone marrow (although it would have to be mostly artificial of course)
Thanks for sharing this! I donated with Be The Match as well, in March of 2020, which was interesting timing. They actually had to send me to a sister organization called Gift of Life, whose staff was amazing as well. I had preciously started the process to donate a kidney and then let the ball drop and forgotten about it. The call from Be The Match was such a specific call to action:
âYouâve been identified as a possible marrow match for a 57-year-old Male in need of a transplant. The patientâs doctor is trying to determine treatment options as quickly as possible.â My reaction was basically âoh my god, of course!â versus the kidney donation which was more like âeh this is mildly annoying right now Iâll just notâ since there was no single individual being called to my attention.
Interestingly enough, my experience donating stem cells was so rewarding that it reminded me of my previous attempt at kidney donation, and I restarted that process and donated my kidney later that year. I bet if you compared kidney donation rates between people in the bone marrow registry and people who have been matched and donated stem cells, youâd find a significant increase in the latter population.
Yeah the call out of the blue with someone effectively saying âwe need your help ASAP for someone in dire straits with a blood cancerâ was extremely morally clarifying. My reaction was essentially the same as yours. That was one of the reasons I felt uncomfortable trying do a traditional EA cost-effectiveness breakdown for this (although I have it in a private google doc) -- why wouldnât you just try to help save the other personâs life?
Donating right around the start of COVID lockdowns sounds like it would have been crazy! Iâm very glad to hear your donation went well and you took the leap with kidney donationâI hope you had a positive experience with that one too.
Some folks in the comments on Scott Alexanderâs piece on kidney donation were speculating that you would have an easier time getting kidney donations if there was some sort of similar matching process like for bone marrow (although it would have to be mostly artificial of course)