Bioethicists
The End Kidney Deaths Act satisfies all four core principles of medical ethics: beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice.
Beneficence: It would save thousands of lives each year by increasing access to kidney transplants.
Nonmaleficence: Living kidney donation is already a safe, well-regulated medical procedure, and this bill operates within that framework.
Autonomy: It respects individuals’ right to make voluntary, informed decisions about their own bodies.
Justice: It expands access to transplantation and reduces inequities in who receives life-saving care.
Leading bioethicists across disciplines have reached the same conclusion:
Luke Semrau (Bloomsburg University, kidney donor):
“For decades, we’ve relied on purely altruistic donation, and it has decisively failed. Every year, thousands die avoidable deaths. A carefully designed system of compensation would benefit recipients, donors, and taxpayers alike. This is a rare case where the moral choice is clear.”
Peter Jaworski (Georgetown University):
“If we can save lives with relatively low risk, we should. Kidney donation meets that standard, and compensation is a morally permissible way to encourage it. Treating all compensation as impermissible is a serious moral error.”
Janet Radcliffe Richards (University of Oxford):
“Total prohibition is preventing us from even testing policies that could save thousands of lives each year, and it conflicts with basic principles of autonomy and freedom.”
James Stacey Taylor (The College of New Jersey):
“This is one of the rare cases where the ethical path is clear: compensating donors would save lives and improve well-being. Morality does not merely permit it—it demands it.”
Dr. Frederike Ambagtsheer (Erasmus University Rotterdam):
“Prohibition has failed to prevent exploitation and has instead driven organ trade underground. A regulated, government-controlled system deserves to be tested, especially when it could produce better outcomes for both donors and patients.”
The ethical question is no longer whether we can do this. It is whether we can justify not doing it.