Kidney to Share

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In Kidney to Share, Martha Gershun tells the story of her decision to donate a kidney to a stranger. She takes readers through the complex process by which such donors are vetted to ensure that they are physically and psychologically fit to take the risk of a major operation. John D. Lantos, a physician and bioethicist, places Gershun’s story in the larger context of the history of kidney transplantation and the ethical controversies that surround living donors. Together, they help readers understand the discoveries that made transplantation relatively safe and effective as well as the legal, ethical, and economic policies that make it feasible.

Martha Gershun is the former Executive Director of Jackson County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). She is author of Care & Custody, and her work has appeared in The Kansas City Star, The New York Times Magazine, Kveller, and The Radcliffe Quarterly. In 2018 she donated a kidney at the Mayo Clinic to a woman she read about in the newspaper. Follow her on Twitter @mgershun.

John D. Lantos, MD, is Director of the Bioethics Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine. He is author of Do We Still Need Doctors?, coauthor of Neonatal Bioethics, and editor of Controversial Bodies. He is also Associate Editor of American Journal of Bioethics and Perspectives in Biology and Medicine and Senior Editor of Current Problems in Pediatrics and Adolescent Health Care. Follow him on Twitter @johnlantos.