Commentary: Making the most of strangers' altruism

What should be the limits of living organ donation? This is the question Lainie Ross tries to answer in her article in this issue. Ross claims that intimates may actually have an obligation to be a living organ donor born out of their relationship to the recipient, which is a difficult moral argument to make and a position that is not supported by our laws and public policies. The conclusion of this commentary is that there is a clear moral obligation not to cause harm without both sufficient offsetting benefit and a fair distribution of the risks and benefits entailed, an obligation that doesn't depend on the relationship between donor and recipient.