An international opinion poll of well-educated people regarding awareness and feelings about organ donation for transplantation

Abstract

Summary Despite repeated campaigns promoting transplantation, the high donation refusal rate remains unchanged. We targeted a well‐educated population to assess the impact of our current transplantation promoting programs and personal feelings toward new approaches to organ donation. A questionnaire was proposed in five universities to students and university staffs that would have been likely to benefit from previous information campaigns in two South American and three European countries. All of the 2321 people interviewed replied to at least one question. Organ shortage was considered as a serious public health issue. However, there was a widespread ignorance of religious precepts concerning transplantation that contributed to the low acceptance rate of organ sharing after death. Financial rewards for donors or their families remain controversial. There was a general agreement for early educational programs in schools. Most people still consider organ donation as a gift, but many would now agree to readily share body parts after death. This biased population of well‐educated people has still little knowledge of organ donation. The negative impact of ignorance surrounding religious precepts and the high acceptance rate of educational programs in schools, justify supporting an intensive international effort in education that should also include Church leaders.

Laypeople's Ethical Concerns About a New Israeli Organ Transplantation Prioritization Policy Aimed to Encourage Organ Donor Registration among the Public

“…Despite relatively wide support for cadaveric organ donation, many people are unwilling to be organ donors or to register as an organ donor (Cantarovich et al 2007;Sanner 2001). Objections are often rooted in religious or cultural beliefs related to the sanctity of the body or the resurrection of the dead (S. Morgan et al 2007;S.…”

“…2008;Simpkin et al 2009). Often, people are unaware that their religion does not necessarily object to organ donation (Cantarovich et al 2007). Even some who are not religious feel there should be limits to human intervention in the course of life and object to taking body parts from cadavers or believe the body should be left intact (Schweda and Schicktanz 2009).…”

Islam and End-of-Life Practices in Organ Donation for Transplantation: New Questions and Serious Sociocultural Consequences

“…The real and serious concerns about end-of-life practices in organ donation are often dismissed as myths. Effectively, consent for organ donation is encouraged by altering public perceptions and dismantling opposing traditional religious and cultural values (Alkhawari, Stimson & Warrens, 2005;Cantarovich et al, 2007). In Islam, it is fundamentally wrong to procure organs without prior permission of the deceased or a surrogate (Aksoy, 2001).…”

Enforcement of presumed-consent policy and willingness to donate organs as identified in the European Union Survey: The role of legislation in reinforcing ideology in pluralistic societies

“…Fourth, the factual knowledge or information about organ procurement and donation processes that must be disclosed to presumed organ donors has also changed significantly since the completion of Eurobarometer 58.2 [10,24]. In 2007, the results of an international survey reported a much higher rate of unwillingness to donate and negative attitudes toward organ donation at the end of life among well-educated university professionals [25,26]. The findings of several studies published between 2004 and 2008 also confirm the same trend of an inverse relationship between the depth of information or knowledge about medical practices and processes involved in removing organs at the end of life and the attitudes toward organ donation [27][28][29][30].…”