I strongly suspect the kidney donations in question are mostly to other Jews, and maybe mostly to other Orthodox Jews. The organization mentioned in the video is Renewal, which “helps facilitate kidney matches within the Jewish community.”
And with regard to Matnat Chaim: “In a report aired on Israel’s Channel 2 Sunday, the Health Ministry said the policy leads to possible discrimination, noting that at least half of Matnat Chaim’s donors request Jewish recipients.”
In general, Orthodox Jews are very altruistic towards other Jews, and especially other Orthodox Jews. However, the impression I have is that they tend to be tribalistic and unlikely to favor expanded moral circles. So I don’t think they’re a good target audience for EA.
(I grew up Orthodox Jewish, but I’m now an atheist.)
Hmm, that’s too bad. On Matnat Chaim, another way of looking at it that up to half of the donors did not request Jewish recipients, but maybe those donors were less likely to be Orthodox Jews specifically, though. And even if few donors did not request someone of the same religion or ethnicity, there could till be something to learn from Matnat Chaim’s approach.
This article paints an even more pessimistic picture at the time it was written: almost all of the donors (309 of 311) were Orthodox Jews, and all of them requested Jewish recipients. However, this was earlier in the organization’s history, and maybe things have changed since then.
I suppose there are also some particularities about Orthodox Judaism and the permissibility of using organs from people who are dying but whose hearts have not yet stopped which is apparently how most donations happen (the heart is kept artificially beating), and so live organ donation might be the only practical permissible option for Orthodox Jews to donate and receive kidneys. This might partially explain why they are so much more likely to donate kidneys than average.
Thanks Avi—I think you are right, from what I can tell the kidney donations discussed in those sources are largely within their community. (Although I wonder if they end up triggering any “swap chains”?)
I appreciate your perspective on the orthodox community, too, which I have relatively little personal experience with (one side of my family is orthodox but I grew up loosely reform). While in general I agree orthodox Jews are probably not the group most likely to get into EA, I figure there’s still value in offering some information for any EA-curious orthodox folks out there (though I don’t think that will be much of a focus of this site if I end up setting it up).
I strongly suspect the kidney donations in question are mostly to other Jews, and maybe mostly to other Orthodox Jews. The organization mentioned in the video is Renewal, which “helps facilitate kidney matches within the Jewish community.”
And with regard to Matnat Chaim: “In a report aired on Israel’s Channel 2 Sunday, the Health Ministry said the policy leads to possible discrimination, noting that at least half of Matnat Chaim’s donors request Jewish recipients.”
In general, Orthodox Jews are very altruistic towards other Jews, and especially other Orthodox Jews. However, the impression I have is that they tend to be tribalistic and unlikely to favor expanded moral circles. So I don’t think they’re a good target audience for EA.
(I grew up Orthodox Jewish, but I’m now an atheist.)
Hmm, that’s too bad. On Matnat Chaim, another way of looking at it that up to half of the donors did not request Jewish recipients, but maybe those donors were less likely to be Orthodox Jews specifically, though. And even if few donors did not request someone of the same religion or ethnicity, there could till be something to learn from Matnat Chaim’s approach.
This article paints an even more pessimistic picture at the time it was written: almost all of the donors (309 of 311) were Orthodox Jews, and all of them requested Jewish recipients. However, this was earlier in the organization’s history, and maybe things have changed since then.
I suppose there are also some particularities about Orthodox Judaism and the permissibility of using organs from people who are dying but whose hearts have not yet stopped which is apparently how most donations happen (the heart is kept artificially beating), and so live organ donation might be the only practical permissible option for Orthodox Jews to donate and receive kidneys. This might partially explain why they are so much more likely to donate kidneys than average.
Thanks Avi—I think you are right, from what I can tell the kidney donations discussed in those sources are largely within their community. (Although I wonder if they end up triggering any “swap chains”?)
I appreciate your perspective on the orthodox community, too, which I have relatively little personal experience with (one side of my family is orthodox but I grew up loosely reform). While in general I agree orthodox Jews are probably not the group most likely to get into EA, I figure there’s still value in offering some information for any EA-curious orthodox folks out there (though I don’t think that will be much of a focus of this site if I end up setting it up).