Living-kidney donation offers an option to patients awaiting renal transplantation.
Representations about giving-receiving are explored retrospectively in a
qualitative study.
Questionnaires with open questions were sent to thirty donor-recipient dyads.
Interviews were also conducted, during which participants were invited to propose
an image representing donation.
Thematic analysis was performed on the questionnaires (twenty-nine donors;
twenty-five recipients), and on the comments of ten images selected by five
donors and five recipients. Percentages are given regarding each part (donors;
recipients).
In the questionnaires, life (34.5%; 12%), love (27.6%; 40%), quality of life
(27.6%; 8%) and generosity (6.9%; 24%) are common grounds regarding
giving-a-kidney. Obviousness, hope, personal benefits or duty are expressed
by donors. Recipients explain donation through emphatic sentences, qualify it
as a gift or refer to the donor's courage or risk-taking.
Regarding receiving-a-kidney, life (31%; 60%), gift (10.3%; 28%) and debt
(3.4%; 4%) are common grounds. Donors refer to generosity or love. Quality of
life, donor's risk-taking or emphatic sentences are characteristic of recipients,
who highlight that nobody had to die.
Preliminary data on the comments of the images underline that live-donation
represents life and love. Mutual help, sharing-act, obviousness and personal
benefits are expressed by donors. Recipients use emphatic sentences or refer
to quality of life, gift or the difficulty to accept donation.
Life and love are common grounds in live-donation. Improvement in quality of
life is underlined by recipients, who stress the donor's courage or risk-taking.
Donors describe donation as obvious, sometimes accompanied by personal
benefits. Feelings of duty (donors) and of debt (recipients) are less discussed.
Representations about giving and receiving differ between donors and recipients.
These data show the specificity of each perspective. This analysis provides
valuable information in order to adapt individual or dyad psychological
support in live-donation.