The New England Medical Center has started a pioneering program for family members who have a loved one awaiting a kidney transplant: Donate a kidney to a stranger and your loved one moves up on the cadaver waiting list.

The program, called Hope Through Sharing, is designed to enable people to help a loved one by donating a kidney, even in cases where their kidney is not compatible and cannot be transplanted directly to the family member in need.

The program has been approved by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which administer's the nation's cadaver organ donor network, and has already enabled the mother of a 13-year-old boy to reduce his wait for a kidney from a possible 18 months to a few weeks.

Dr. Mark D. Fox, a medical ethicist at the University of Rochester Medical Center who served on the UNOS panel that evaluated the program, said that while the plan gives an advantage to people on the waiting list who have a family member willing to be a living-donor, everyone benefits in the end.

"It's really an addition to the total available pool of organs, and that's why it's so important," added Richard Luskin of the New England Organ Bank.