The Internet can do more than help you find a date -- it can help you find a kidney. Since last October, MatchingDonors.com, a nonprofit Web site based in Canton, Mass., has been helping patients who desperately need a new liver or kidney find living donors who take altruism to a new level.
The vast majority of organ transplants, from donors both living and dead, are managed by the federally sponsored United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). UNOS allocates organs according to medical urgency, time spent on the waiting list, and the proximity of the patient to the available organ. But there aren't nearly enough available organs.