Living Kidney Donation in Israel: The Lived Experiences of Donors’ Partners in Faith-Based Communities

This study explores the lived experiences of spouses of altruistic kidney donors in faith-based communities in Israel. While not undergoing the surgical procedure themselves, spouses are deeply involved in the donation process, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually, yet their perspectives remain largely overlooked within healthcare systems and religious discourse. Drawing on interpretive phenomenological analysis and informed by an ecological framework, this study examines how individual, relational, communal, and institutional contexts shape spouses’ experiences of donation. Findings indicate that spouses often assume extensive emotional and practical responsibilities while navigating complex moral tensions related to consent, faith, responsibility, and communal expectations. Although many expressed pride in their partners’ altruistic acts, participants also described feelings of invisibility, emotional burden, and limited institutional recognition of their supportive role. These experiences reveal how altruistic donation, often framed as an individual moral act, is in practice embedded within intimate relationships and sustained through relational labor that remains largely unacknowledged. By foregrounding the voices of donors’ partners, this study contributes to a more relational and ethically nuanced understanding of altruism in faith-based contexts. It highlights the need for greater institutional and pastoral awareness of spouses’ experiences and calls for more inclusive approaches to care, support, and ethical engagement within religiously grounded medical practices.