Commercial transplantation has expanded because of the shortage of kidneys for transplantation. This study aims to synthesize qualitative studies on the experiences and perspectives of living commercial kidney donors. We conducted a comprehensive literature search in electronic databases to April 2011 and consulted experts to identify unpublished studies. Thematic synthesis was used to analyze the findings. Seven studies involving over 676 commercial kidney donors were included. Three major themes were identified: desperation (the participants' decision to sell their kidney was forced by poverty, debt, or to fulfill a family obligation); despair (destroyed body integrity, shame and secrecy, dehumanized and dispirited, loss of livelihood, heightened sense of vulnerability, disappointment, and regret); and debasement (deception by brokers and recipients, victimized by the hospital, stigmatized by community, and rejected by family). Commercial kidney transplantation is reported to result in ramifications for the donors' mental, physical, and social well-being. Not only do they remain in poverty, they lose dignity, sense of purpose, respect, relationships, and livelihood. Review of this published literature supports the need for effective implementation of the WHO guiding principles and legislated regulation to deter potential recipients and healthcare providers from pursuing commercial transplantation.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 January 2020.
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#3,385,196
of 34,574,341 outputs
Outputs from Transplant International
#182
of 2,509 outputs
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#19,570
of 214,809 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Transplant International
#1
of 21 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,574,341 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,509 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 21 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
