Simmons
Simmons et al. (1977)
Kin and the likelihood of kidney donations
- The study investigated whether close relatives were more likely to be kidney donors.
- The results showed that 86% of parents said yes but only 47% of the siblings who could be donors agreed to donate a kidney to their relative when asked. The theory predicts that both should agree so the difference in agreement to make this sacrifice cannot be explained in terms of kin alone.
- Researchers asked potential kidney recipients to rate their emotional closeness to all possible donors before the choice of a donor was made. Generally, the recipients felt very close to 63% of the potential donors but only to 42% of the potential non-donors. It was found that when siblings were donors, the recipient and the donor were significantly closer in age and more likely to be of the same sex than were non-donors.