Letters to the Editor
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‘Incentives for a Kidney’
Ms. Furchtgott-Roth would have readers believe that the National Kidney Foundation neither supports measures to increase living organ donation nor advocates for patients with kidney failure [Oped, “Incentives for a Kidney,” April 23, 2008].
Financial compensation to a donor, as opposed to alleviating actual expenses, would exploit the poor and could adversely impact altruistic donation, but our opposition to financial incentives has not stopped us from working tirelessly to increase both living and deceased organ donation.
NKF has been very active on several legislative initiatives, including enactment and funding for a federal grant program to assist living donors with non-medical expenses, legislation to allow exchanges of kidneys among two or more living donors to proceed (“paired donation”), and legislation to provide state income tax deductions for expenses and lost wages resulting from living organ donation.
The National Kidney Foundation rallies high profile celebrities — many of whom are transplant recipients — and low income dialysis patients alike to advocate for greater awareness of kidney disease and improvements to public policy.
The National Kidney Foundation’s “People Like Us” program mobilizes patients and family members to advocate for their own health care and help shape public policy to improve the lives of the 26 million Americans with chronic kidney disease.
Many of these patients communicate regularly with their congressional delegation to urge support for kidney-related legislation.
Others step out in cities across America for the Kidney Walk, aptly named so that those who are debilitated by kidney failure can participate, help generate critical support for the cause and speak up to warn the millions of Americans at risk about the life-saving importance of early detection.
TROY ZIMMERMAN
Vice President for Government Relations
National Kidney Foundation
Washington, D.C.
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