AITA for not donating my kidney?

The donator will not need to be on any medication besides some pain meds after the procedure. Only the person recieving the transplant would be on lifelong medication. The rest of your facts are correct though. In addition to what you pointed out, it could still take years of waiting even if you are related to the person who needs the transplant because there is a LOT of preparation on both sides that needs to be evaluated and adressed. Multiple specialists are brought onto the case from various aspects of medicine including but not limited to: pharamcists, nutritionists, sugeons, phychiatrists, case workers, her regular doctor, and many more on her end and multiple examinations for the donor for compatability, psychologists to make sure they are in the right state of mind and mentally capable of dealing with the operation, doctors monitoring various aspects of the donors life (What is their diet like? Do they have any underlying illnesses? Are they healthy enough to do the operation? What is their home life like? Do they have someone to take care of them afterwards? etc.). It may not take as long as if you were just waiting on a stranger to donate, but it is far from just walking into the hospital one day and being released the next day with a bottle of pills. It can still take months for it to come to the point where an operation is possible.

OP is NTA AT ALL! They won't even approve the surgery if they think at any point that the donor is not 100% certain they want to do it.

Source: Was put onto the transplant list in 2016, and while I am currently fortunate enough to have my condition under control with just medication, it was taken as a future proofing measure. Still had to go to the meetings with the above specialists with my father one morning so they could discuss all of the above aspects for if I ever do need the surgery. That meeting took over 6 hours and was just specialists coming in to brief us on what would need to happen before and after the procedure and was more of a "what to expect" situation than anything else. The preparation for the proceedure takes much longer for both parties (if the party is a living person, not deceased) and takes place over several months minimum.

/r/AmItheAsshole Thread Parent