Kidney transplantation · Myths and facts
The stories that stop families from saying yes to a transplant
Most people who refuse a kidney transplant are not refusing the medicine. They are refusing something they heard. Here are six of the most common stories — and what is actually true.
The short answer
- The "woke up in a bathtub without a kidney" story has never been documented. Organ trafficking is real — and it is exactly what the law is built to prevent.
- Donating a kidney has been accepted medical practice since 1954. The donor always keeps the stronger kidney.
- At the end of the first year, about 98% of transplanted kidneys are working. Many go on working for decades.
- Almost every patient with end-stage kidney failure is a transplant candidate.
Myth 1: "Gangs steal people's kidneys"
The story usually goes like this: someone wakes up in a hotel bathtub full of ice, with a note telling them to call an ambulance. It has circulated for decades. No such case has ever been documented.
There is a simple reason. A kidney transplant is not something that can be done in a hotel room. It needs blood group and tissue matching, a crossmatch test, a full operating theatre, an anaesthesia team, a surgical team and weeks of hospital follow-up. A kidney taken without all of that is useless.
Organ trafficking — buying kidneys from poor people — does exist in parts of the world, and it is a crime. The international medical community's statement against it is called, fittingly, the Declaration of Istanbul (2008).
In Turkey, selling an organ is illegal. A living donor must be a relative, or a non-relative approved by an ethics committee after detailed investigation — and the basic condition is that no money or material benefit changes hands between recipient and donor.
Myth 2: "Organ donation is against religion"
Every major faith places the protection of human life and doing good for others at its centre. Major religious authorities have stated their support for organ donation as an act that saves a life.
If this question is holding your family back, it is worth asking your own religious leader directly — rather than relying on what someone else has heard.
Myth 3: "If you donate a kidney, you will be half a person"
Donating one of two kidneys after careful medical assessment has been accepted practice in medicine since 1954. It is not new, and it is not experimental.
- The donor always keeps the stronger kidney.
- The remaining kidney adapts, and within three months delivers about three quarters of what two kidneys did.
- In our own follow-up of 135 donors, 94.8% said they would do it again.
Can a person really live normally with one kidney?
Here is the clearest answer. Many people over 50 who come forward to donate to a relative discover during the tests that they have only ever had one kidney — and never knew. They have lived their whole lives with it.
The full figures on donor safety are in our article What happens to you if you donate a kidney.
Myth 4: "A transplanted kidney only lasts five years"
Some people say five years, some say ten. Neither is a rule.
With modern treatment, about 98% of transplanted kidneys are healthy at the end of the first year. In a patient who takes their medicines regularly and never neglects their check-ups, a transplanted kidney can go on working for decades.
And if a kidney does eventually fail, that is not the end either — a second transplant is possible, and for many patients it is the best option.
Myth 5: "Turkey is not advanced enough for transplantation"
The opposite is true. Around 70–80% of transplants in Turkey come from living donors — a level of experience with living donation that few countries can match. Turkish transplant teams have also contributed methods now discussed around the world. From the author's own team:
- The first seven-way domino paired kidney exchange performed outside the Americas.
- Turkey's first blood-group-incompatible kidney transplants (2007), with the results published.
- One of the world's first studies of transplantation from hepatitis B positive living donors.
Read more about paired exchange and blood-group-incompatible transplantation.
Myth 6: "Hardly anyone is suitable for a transplant"
In fact, the list of people who cannot have a kidney transplant is short:
- severe heart or lung disease,
- active infection,
- untreated cancer,
- acute psychiatric illness.
These affect only a small proportion of dialysis patients. That means almost everyone with end-stage kidney failure is a candidate. Diabetes, hepatitis, older age and a previous failed transplant are, on their own, not reasons to refuse. See who cannot have a kidney transplant.
If you or someone in your family has said no to a transplant, ask one question: was it a doctor's reason, or a story?
If it was a story, it deserves a second look.
Prof. Dr. Murat Tuncer
Nephrologist and transplant physician. Author of Kidney Transplantation — With Questions and Answers (Istanbul, 2020).
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Medical disclaimer. This article is general information adapted from a published book. It is not personal medical advice, it does not establish a doctor–patient relationship, and it cannot replace assessment by the physician treating you. Always consult a transplant centre before making decisions about transplantation or donation.
References
- The Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. International Summit on Transplant Tourism and Organ Trafficking, Istanbul, 2008 (updated 2018).
- Abramowicz D, Cochat P, Claas FH, et al. European Renal Best Practice Guideline on kidney donor and recipient evaluation and perioperative care. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2015;30(11):1790–1797.
