[tialaramex]

"Oh I didn't actually save the little old ladies when their nursing home burned down. I just made their life a bit easier for a little while, they still all died because they were human"

Nobody talks like this. It is understood that humans are mortal.

Yes, necessarily kidney disease cure research gets you fewer QALYs than figuring out a way to cure something we have no treatment for. But given we haven't eradicated polio it's not as though humans are very good at this whole cost-benefit analysis when it comes to medicine.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

This:

"Oh I didn't actually save the little old ladies when their nursing home burned down. I just made their life a bit easier for a little while, they still all died because they were human"

Is not analogous to this:

"I decided to donate one of my kidneys to make someone's life a little bit easier for a little while".

[kyykky]

I am donating my other kidney to a child (1 year old with nephrosis). In any case he is living the rest of his life with this condition. I am doing this to minimize the risk of rejection during childhood. There are living people with this condition (since being babies) who are 40 years old and have families.