Penny Lane on Effective Altruism and Donating a Kidney to a Stranger
Penny Lane’s new Netflix documentary, Confessions of a Good Samaritan, delves into her life-changing decision to donate a kidney to a stranger. Known for her thoughtful and provocative storytelling, Lane has explored human connection and empathy in films such as Hail Satan? and The Pain of Others. Last October she spoke with Reason‘s Nick Gillespie and shared her emotional, physical, and philosophical experience with anonymous kidney donation and the challenges that came with it.
Q: This is a film about your decision to give a kidney to a stranger. Can you tell us about the type of donation and why you decided to do this?
A: The type of donation is known as an altruistic donation. The gift is anonymous. So I don’t know who received it, and I never will. It’s a pretty rare practice in the United States. There’s a few hundred people a year who do this—but that’s a huge increase from 20 years ago when there were zero.
As you would hear from most altruistic donors, it just seemed like an obviously good idea. The amount of risk and suffering that the donor is likely to take on statistically is nothing compared to the good that you’re doing for another person who’s literally dying.
Q: Are you
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