Published: 1 November 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
ONE SUMMER MORNING last year Hadar Koplovich, an Israeli mother of five, finally checked into the hospital for abdominal surgery she had spent months waiting for. But she didn’t need the surgery for her own health.
She was there to have one of her kidneys removed so it could be given to save the life of someone she had never met. Then, she would spend a few weeks patiently recovering.
“Lots of people ask me how I could do this,” Koplovich said. “But I don’t feel like it’s such a big deal. For me it was simple. We have two kidneys.”
Koplovich is among the growing number of religiously observant Israelis who are volunteering to donate kidneys to people they have never met, ultimately doubling the number of kidney transplants taking place in the country each year.
Officials credit the increase in living donors to improved surgical techniques, increased social welfare benefits, and the work of a non-profit organisation called Matnat Chaim, which raises awareness about and facilitates live kidney donations, especially among Orthodox Israelis.
“Within the religious community, there is a strong desire to do something meaningful, to save a life, so the increased awareness of donating a kidney has an effect of inspiring others to donate.”
Rabbinic authorities, whose often stringent definitions of brain death have led to Israel’s relatively low rate of organ transplants from deceased people, are now actively encouraging live donations of kidneys, the most in-demand organ, especially as the danger to the donor has been reduced.
FULL STORY To save a stranger’s life (Tablet)
