Becoming a living kidney donor.

Earlier investigations of attitudes of living kidney donors have been performed in retrospect. We saw a need to investigate in depth those motives and feelings that are relevant in potential kidney donors. With a phenomenologic approach, interviews were performed with 12 potential donors. Seven categories of motives were identified: a desire to help, increased self-esteem from doing good deeds, identification with the recipient, self-benefit from the relative's improved health, mere logic, external pressure, and a feeling of moral duty. In the individual, these categories interacted to create a perception of donation being the only option.