Good Samaritan Kidney Donation: A Comparative Study Between New Zealand and Australia

Kusam Nagi¹, Moohambika Srinivasan¹, Piyumi B. Lekamlage¹, Katrina A. Bramstedt¹

¹Bond University School of Medicine, Gold Coast, Australia

Australia and New Zealand are trans-Tasman neighbours who share a British colonial heritage, but the similarities end when the topic turns to living organ donation.  We conducted a comparative study of the rates of Good Samaritan [altruistic] Kidney Donation and living donation (in general) in Australia and New Zealand.  Data was sourced from ANZDATA.  In the Oceania region, New Zealand pioneered the first Good Samaritan donation in 1998, with Australia following with their first Good Samaritan donation six years later, in 2004.  Our analysis shows New Zealand outpacing Australia in the rates of both Good Samaritan kidney donation (statistically significant) and living donation in general (not statistically significant).  We pose three reasons for the disparity: 1. Website content analysis finds that every New Zealand hospital which offers Good Samaritan donation mentions “unrelated” or “altruistic” donation on their website (kappa 0.78; 3 raters) whereas only 2 of 15 Australian hospitals offering this procedure mention such on their website (prior study)^[1]; 2. Since 2005, New Zealand has offered a financial safety net for living donors, namely, up to 12 weeks non-taxable financial assistance due to lost income and/or extra childcare costs, whereas Australia introduced a financial assistance plan only recently (July 2013, 6 weeks taxable paid leave); 3. Unlike Australia, with its numerous states, territories and policies, New Zealand is not carved into jurisdictional segments with multiple policies on donation, lending to a more streamlined approach. Only time will tell if the Australian paid leave program will have a significant impact on living donation rates.  A national Australian policy on Good Samaritan donation could potentially have a positive impact and should be trialled as a pilot.  Additionally, enhancing the content of Australian hospital websites might also raise community awareness about Good Samaritan donation.