Donor Numbers Increase in Israel

According to the National Transplant Center’s annual report, Israel witnessed a 64% increase in kidney transplants from living donors from 2010 to 2011. Donors began receiving compensation of several thousand shekels in August 2010, which could account for many of the 117 kidneys donated in 2011. The compensation covers lost wages for forty days and monetary benefits of up to NIS 30,000 for proven expenses for up to five years.

The percentage of families consenting to organ donations when a relative becomes brain dead reached 55% in 2011, totaling 89 donors for last year. The Priority Law will take effect in April of this year and allows Adi donor cardholders priority if they ever need a transplant. Last year, a total of 632,300 organ donors signed Adi donor cards, and 20,000 more donors have sent requests for cards to the National Transplant Center.

The “chain of living donors” program, which launched in Israel last year, may have helped increase the number of donors for 2011. The program pairs relatives of Israelis wainting for a kidney transplant with others who are on the waiting list. In exchange for the donation, the family member’s relative is paired with a kidney donor from the same network.  

See Dan Even, Dramatic Increase in Organ Transplants Recorded in Israel in 2011, Haaretz.com, Jan. 1, 2012.