Over 90,000 Americans are currently on the kidney transplant waitlist.

Without action, around half will survive long enough to receive a life-saving kidney transplant. These patients aren't dying from kidney disease itself but from the prolonged and often fatal wait for a transplant.

The End Kidney Deaths Act (H.R. 2687) was reintroduced in the House on April 7, 2025 by Representative Malliotakis & Representative Harder. Let’s get to the finish line in 2025.


    • Fort Worth Report      , Amid national kidney shortage, Tarrant patients find long wait times — and few solutions, December 19, 2024

    • Top of Mind with Julie Rose Podcast, American Has an Organ Shortage. Could Paying Donors Close the Gap? November 11, 2024

    • NBC Washington, How a bill would create a $50K reward for donating a kidney to a stranger, November 1, 2024

    • Bay Area Association of Kidney Patients, Anonymous Kidney Donations: What It's Like, and How a Proposed Law May End the Kidney Shortage, October 27, 2024

    • James Myers Broadcast, Broadcast with Nancy Marlin, October 25, 2024

    • Palm Beach Post, Kidney donations hurt by financial barriers. Time to end that, October 19, 2024

    • American Enterprise Institute, We Need to Try a Tax Credit to Help Fix the Kidney Shortage, October 16, 2024

    • Today Show, Would you give up a kidney for $50,000? Proposed law sparks debate, October 3, 2024

    • Click2Houston, Houston veteran pushes for tax breaks for organ donors after donating kidney and liver, October 2, 2024

    • The Atlantic, Would You Give Up Your Kidney for $50,000? October 1, 2024

    • MegaDoctor News, From Pigs to Payouts: Weighing Solutions for the U.S. Kidney Shortage, September 20, 2024

    • Vox, The moral case for paying kidney donors; Kidney donors save lives. Why aren’t we compensated for it? September 18, 2024

    • CNN Regional, California congressman introduces bill that could provide kidney donors with financial incentive, September 18 2024

    • CBS News 13 Sacramento, California congressman introduces bill that could provide kidney donors with financial incentive, September 17, 2024

    • Spectrum 1 News, Charlotte, NC, "My life has been on hold": Donor incentive bill could speed up waitlist, September 10, 2024

    • Raleigh News, "Kidney Deaths," September 7, 2024

    • Houston Chronicle, "Houston man donated his liver and kidney to strangers. He supports a bill for donors to receive tax breaks"; Second Link; September 2, 2024

    • Freakonomics, Episode 139, minute 59; August 30, 2024

    • Yahoo News, WSB-TV 2 atlanta, "New proposal to offer $50k to people who donate their kidneys, hopes to shorten transplant waitlist," August 30, 2024

    • Kidneys for All Substack, New Law to Prevent Kidney Deaths, Finally, something substantial is being done to provide more kidneys for transplantation, August 27, 2024

    • National Public Radio, "There’s a severe kidney shortage. Should donors be compensated?" August 26, 2024

    • Fox 5 New York, "New effort to encourage kidney donations;" August 23, 2024

    • DocWire News, "End Kidney Deaths Act Introduced in Congress" August 15, 2024

    • Fox 26 Houston, "Lunch for the Soul with Tom O'Driscoll, kidney and liver donor:" August 7, 2024

    • Signals Brief: "Would you donate a kidney to a stranger... for $50,000?" August 19, 2024

    • Sierra Sun Times, "California Congressman Josh Harder Introduces Bill to Increase Bill to Increase Kidney Donations and Save Thousands of Lives - 1/3 of the People Currently on the Kidney Waitlist Will Die Before Receiving a Kidney;" August 14, 2024

    • NBC Washington, "People who donate kidneys to strangers would get $50K tax credit if this law passes;" August 12, 2024

    • WTOP News, "Maryland woman, dual organ donor advocates for bill to give tax break to donors," July 22, 2024

    • Kidney Solutions, "Tackling the Kidney Shortage with the End Kidney Deaths Act;" July 5, 2024

    • Hull News, "Hull resident hopes her kidney donation to a stranger inspires others," July 4, 2024

    • Yahoo News/ Boston 25 news, "Should kidney donors receive tax incentives for donating to strangers? June 24, 2024

    • Denver Post & Boulder Daily Camera, "Pig kidneys are promising, but tax credit for donors will save more Coloradans; June 18, 2024

    • NORTH CAROLINA QUEENS CITY NEWS, "Pilot program would pay people to donate kidney;" June 5, 2024

    • Tucson KOLD - 13, "Tucson woman pushing for kidney bill, over 100,000 people waiting for kidney on transplant list," June 2, 2024

    • Philadelphia Radio WHYY, "Paying people for their organs," May 30, 2024

    • Yahoo News, "Would you donate a kidney for $50,000? This pilot program is gaining national momentum," May 23, 2024

    • PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, "It’s illegal to pay people for organs, but some advocates want a $50,000 tax credit for kidneys;" May 16, 2024

    • Pensacola News Journal, "end Kidney deaths act can save florida lives," May, 2024

    • Jim Myers Broadcast, Broadcast with Elaine perlman and ned brooks, May, 2024

    • Vox & MSN, "Would you donate a kidney for $50,000?" Apr 17, 2024

    • NEW YORK TIMES, "Let People Sell Their Kidneys. It Will Save Lives." April 2, 2024

    • WORKS IN PROGRESS, "compensating compassion," February 16, 2024

Provide a tax credit to encourage more people to donate kidneys, knowing only 2% complete the ​process, or let Americans continue to die from kidney failure ​d​ue to the kidney shortage?

For details, email ElainePerlman@modifynota.org

The End Kidney Deaths Act offers a solution.

From 2010 to 2021, nearly 100,000 Americans died waiting for a kidney. Will we allow history to repeat itself—or will we take action to ensure up to 100,000 Americans survive and thrive with a new kidney?

Passing the End Kidney Deaths Act won’t just save lives—it will save taxpayers up to $37 billion over the next decade. Let's act now.

Take Action!

  • Email your House Representative and 2 Senators. Ask them to cosponsor the End Kidney Deaths Act.

  • Click HERE to tell your leaders to vote YES on the End Kidney Deaths Act.

  • Check out the news stories about the EKDA. For media inquiries, contact ElainePerlman@modifynota.org Press Kit Link here.

98% of donors said they would have been as likely or even likelier to donate had they received a tax credit (NKDO Survey, 2024).

This is what 100,000 people look like!

The medical system, policy makers, and the major kidney organizations have not yet developed a way to save the lives of the 9,000 Americans who needlessly suffer and die on the kidney waitlist every single year.

Our community has now stepped in to save those lives. We developed the End Kidney Deaths Act. Our movement is primarily comprised of donors and patients (people with skin in the game), 25 organ donation organizations, and top doctors around the country. We all know the kidney shortage is a solvable problem.

Donors are life-savers who know kidney donation is a WHOLE LOT of work. Donation is time consuming, stressful and painful work. And it’s morally important to pay people for difficult work. We know that providing a tax credit will make it easier for Americans to say yes to saving the life of a stranger. 98% of kidney donors said they would have been as likely or even likelier to donate had they received a tax credit. Donors are experts in the donor experience.

Here’s the reality: we already give tax credits to people who own racehorses. Each kidney donors’ willingness to donate saves the life of one person and saves the taxpayer over $500,000.

It’s long past time to honor the courage and generosity of kidney donors while putting an end to the preventable kidney deaths of 25 Americans each day.

100,000 suffered and died in the previous decade. Let’s save 100,000 lives in the next decade.

Here are the surveys demonstrating that the majority of the American public supports compensating kidney donors:
* 2006 - American Journal of Transplantation: Public Attitudes Toward Incentives for Organ Donation: A National Study of Different Racial/Ethnic and Income Groups
* 2012 - Reuters Poll: Americans Show Support For Compensation Of Organ Donors
* 2016 - JAMA Surgery: Most US Voters Approve of Paying Kidney Donors, Survey Finds
* 2019 - Johns Hopkins: Most Americans favor compensation for kidney donors if it leads to more saved lives

The Details

Pass the End Kidney Deaths Act. Save lives.

Encourage organ donation through tax credits.

The End Kidney Deaths Act is a ten year pilot program to provide to living kidney donors who give kidneys to strangers on the kidney waitlist, a refundable tax credit of $10,000 per year for five years ($50,000 total). Click here to read the legislative text.

Kidney donation is safe. Kidney donation is emotionally rewarding.

95% of surveyed donors report they would make the same decision again, largely because of the profound emotional reward of saving a life.

“It’s long past time to modify the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act.”

Professor Alvin Roth, Nobel Laureate

ETHICS

The End Kidney Deaths Act is consistent with the Beauchamp and Childress ethical framework in medicine:

  • do good (beneficence)

  • avoid harm (nonmaleficence)

  • respect individual decision-making (autonomy)

  • justice (ensure fairness)

The future of organ transplantation is full of promise—from artificial kidneys to xenotransplantation. But patients can’t wait for the future.

Every year, nearly 10,000 Americans die waiting for a kidney they could have received. Not because a transplant wasn’t possible—but because it didn’t come in time.

The End Kidney Deaths Act can change that—by enabling up to 10,000 additional life-saving transplants annually over the next decade.

The solution is here. The time to act is now.