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A groundbreaking kidney transplant surgery featured in the hit TV show Grey's Anatomy has sparked discussions about the potential to expand living donor kidney transplants in the United States. In the episode, Miranda Bailey orchestrates a remarkable 12-person paired kidney transplant surgery where donors and recipients swap kidneys. While the show often blurs the line between reality and fiction, paired kidney exchange chains have gained traction in the country.
Kidneys and livers, two organs that living donors can provide, account for more than 90 percent of the demand on the US organ waiting list. However, the US lacks the necessary infrastructure to support a robust living donor liver transplant system. Key advances such as a national registry, universal protections for living donors, and improved surgical training could help bridge this gap.
The liver, being the only organ that can regenerate itself over a period of six to eight weeks, is a promising candidate for living donor transplants. Despite the risks associated with any surgical procedure, living donors can generally maintain a healthy life afterward. The need for liver transplants far exceeds what deceased donors can provide, with over 100,000 people currently on the waitlist.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) reported that around 24 percent of kidney transplants in 2025 used living donors. In the realm of liver transplants, only about 6 percent of the roughly 12,000 transplants performed last year relied on living donors. Leading countries that face a shortage of deceased liver donors, like India, rely heavily on living donors, with 81 percent of their liver transplants performed using living donors in 2022.
The US already possesses the potential for expanding living donor liver transplants, with a plentiful supply of living donor livers. However, the infrastructure to convert willing donors into transplant recipients at scale is missing. Surgeons across the country are working diligently to establish the necessary interconnected systems and standards to make this a reality.
Written by urgent.news from Vox's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
