Can You Donate Your Kidney If You’re Not a Match?

Sure. Ever hear of a “kidney swap”?

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Back when I was contemplating donating my kidney to my adult son nearly two decades ago, we were all focused on blood type. He was type O and so was I. The first hurdle cleared.

Naturally, I still had to overcome lots of medical obstacles (not to mention health insurance and red tape), but fortunately, I succeeded in donating to him in 2006.

Of all the roadblocks to donating a kidney to someone in need, probably the first one that everyone thinks of — and worries about — is being a match.

Matching can mean different things. Some reasons are more of a deal-breaker than others.

Let’s say you want to donate your kidney to a friend. With just a preliminary screening, you learn that you’re not a match on blood type. How much does matching even matter anymore? And what if you don’t match?

What does it mean to be a match?

First of all, when we say someone is a match, we could be referring to blood type or tissue typing. The universal donor — type O — can donate to any blood type, but with rare exceptions, type A can give only to A or AB; type B to B or AB; and so on. That generally means that a blood type O recipient (like my son)…