Executive summary: The post argues against donating a kidney to a stranger, cautioning that kidney donations cause harm to donors, have unclear ethics, and stem from misguided motivations.
Key points:
Kidney donations severely downgrade health and quality of life, increasing risks of kidney disease, mortality, and loss of physical and cognitive capacity.
The long-term impact is negative, as more donors today reduces incentives to develop better solutions like organ growth.
Psychological biases make kidney donation seem more altruistic than other acts that help more with less harm.
Better ways to help include donating money, tackling solvable problems directly, or waiting until older to donate with less personal risk.
The fuzzy ethics and low impact mean donating now is unwise given the high personal risks and potential to damage your ability to do good later.
Address other inconsistencies first before assuming such a high-risk, low-upside act is the best way to contribute.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The post argues against donating a kidney to a stranger, cautioning that kidney donations cause harm to donors, have unclear ethics, and stem from misguided motivations.
Key points:
Kidney donations severely downgrade health and quality of life, increasing risks of kidney disease, mortality, and loss of physical and cognitive capacity.
The long-term impact is negative, as more donors today reduces incentives to develop better solutions like organ growth.
Psychological biases make kidney donation seem more altruistic than other acts that help more with less harm.
Better ways to help include donating money, tackling solvable problems directly, or waiting until older to donate with less personal risk.
The fuzzy ethics and low impact mean donating now is unwise given the high personal risks and potential to damage your ability to do good later.
Address other inconsistencies first before assuming such a high-risk, low-upside act is the best way to contribute.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.