She Gave a Kidney To a Total Stranger

Penny Lane, director of the incredible documentary Confessions of a Good Samaritan, explores the dysfunctional world of organ transplants.

Lex Villena/Reason

My latest Reason Interview is live! This week’s guest is Penny Lane, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose previous works include Listening to Kenny G and Hail Satan? Scroll down to watch via YouTube or listen via Apple, Soundcloud, and Spotify.

Her exceptional new film is Confessions of a Good Samaritan. It's currently streaming on Netflix and follows her experience as an "altruistic" kidney donor, or one who gives an organ away to an anonymous stranger.

I talk with her about how she came to make her decision; its effects on her body, mind, and finances; and the ethics of current policy, which prevents donors from being paid for giving away life-saving organs.

"My instinct as more or less a libertarian is, yeah, pay people," says Penny. "It seems like a really obvious thing." But it's not a simple one, she explains, both because of current laws and medical history.

We also talk about the state of documentary film making, if we're in a golden age for the genre, and whether audiences are becoming smarter consumers of media.

Previous appearances:

"Penny Lane: Can 75 Million Kenny G Fans Be Wrong?" December 1, 2021

"Hail Satan? A New Documentary Depicts Devil Worshipers as Unlikely Defenders of the First Amendment," April 26, 2019

00:00- Introduction

2:19- Penny Lane's altruistic kidney donation

4:21- Effective altruism's influence on Lane

6:12- Lane's obstacles before surgery

7:13- Recovering from surgery physically & psychologically

11:25- Parable of the Good Samaritan

15:43- Kidney donation policy

19:34- How financial incentives would change the equation

21:03- History of kidney transplants

24:17- Could man-made organ transplants be common soon?

28:49- 'Disgust' around selling organs

32:23- Starring in your own documentary

38:12- Are audiences more media literate now?

40:33- Lane's history with documentary filmmaking

41:46- Lane's documentarian heroes

48:06- Lane's current projects

Video Editor: César Báez

Audio Production: Ian Keyser

If you like the stuff I’m posting here, please check out Reason, the planet’s leading source for politics, culture, and ideas from a libertarian perspective. It’s been around since 1968, I’ve worked there since 1993, and we publish scads of articles, videos, and podcasts every single day.

Please share this post and subscribe!