Q: If someone donates a kidney to an elderly family member, and later on in life, the donor has kidney failure, then can he/she be eligible for kidney transplant? Can only family members donate a kidney?

A:Whether you have one kidney, two or more, they all have equal chances of going into renal failure. So whatever happens in the future will not depend on kidney donation, provided your nephrologist screens the donor thoroughly. The closer the relationship of the donor the better the transplant. But nowadays a lot of unrelated transplants are being done as the immunosuppressive drugs are very advanced.