Ethical issues surrounding high-risk kidney recipients: implications for the living donor.

Evaulating patients for living kidney donor transplantation involving a recipient with significant medical issues can create an ethical debate about whether to proceed with surgery. Donors must be informed of the surgical risk to proceed with donating a kidney and their decision must be a voluntary one. A detailed informed consent should be obtained from high-risk living kidney donor transplant recipients as well as donors and family members after the high perioperative risk potential has been explained to them.