Penny Lane: Why I Gave a Kidney to a Total Stranger
The Confessions of a Good Samaritan filmmaker explores the dysfunctional world of organ transplants.
Today's guest is Penny Lane, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose previous works include Listening to Kenny G and Hail Satan?, both of which formed the basis of previous Reason interviews linked in the show notes.
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. Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Lane 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," Lane tells Reason. "It seems like a really obvious thing." But it's not a simple one, she explains, both because of current laws and medical history. They 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
