Kidney donors don't die early

PEOPLE who donate one of their kidneys are likely to live just as long as those who keep two, a major investigation has found.

More than 80,000 live kidney donors were included in the US study looking at the long term effects of parting with a kidney.

"Donating a kidney is safe," said Dr Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The death rate associated with removing a kidney for reasons other than organ donation, such as cancer, was 100 times greater.