Jesse Eisenberg to donate a kidney to a stranger in December

Actor Jesse Eisenberg said on Thursday that he will donate one of his kidneys to a stranger, a procedure he is scheduled to undergo in mid-December. Eisenberg, 42, announced the plan during an appearance on the Today show and in a separate interview with the program's website, describing the decision as an extension of his long-standing habit of giving blood and calling the donation "a nobrainer."

Eisenberg said he has regularly donated blood and that participating in a Today show-sponsored blood drive this year prompted him to take a further step. "I just have so much blood in me, and I feel like I should spill it," he told the morning show. He confirmed he began the medical evaluation after a friend who is a doctor directed him to a transplant center in New York and that he underwent a battery of tests before being scheduled for surgery.

The planned procedure is an altruistic or nondirected living kidney donation, in which a donor gives a kidney to an unknown recipient chosen on the basis of medical compatibility. Eisenberg described how such donations can enable transplant chains that help patients who otherwise lack a compatible donor. "Lets say person X needs a kidney in...