Abstract
BackgroundThere is an ongoing expert debate with regard to financial incentives in order to increase organ supply. However, there is a lacuna of empirical studies on whether citizens would actually support financial incentives for organ donation.MethodsBetween October 2008 and February 2009 a quantitative survey was conducted among German students of medicine and economics to gain insights into their point of view regarding living and deceased organ donation and different forms of commercialization (n = 755).ResultsThe average (passive) willingness to donate is 63.5% among medical students and 50.0% among students of economics (p = 0.001), while only 24.1% of the respondents were actually holding an organ donor card. 11.3% of students of economics had signed a donor card, however, the number is significantly higher among students of medicine (31.9%, p < 0.001). Women held donor cards significantly more often (28.6%) than men (19.4%, p = 0.004). The majority of students were against direct payments as incentives for deceased and living donations. Nevertheless, 37.5% of the respondents support the idea that the funeral expenses of deceased organ donors should be covered. Women voted significantly less often for the coverage of expenses than men (women 31.6%, men 44.0%, p = 0.003). The number of those in favor of allowing to sell one’s organs for money (living organ donation) was highest among students of economics (p = 0.034).ConclusionDespite a generally positive view on organ donation the respondents refuse to consent to commercialization, but are in favor of removing disincentives or are in favor of indirect models of reward.
Highlights
There is an ongoing expert debate with regard to financial incentives in order to increase organ supply
We conducted an extensive survey among students with the aim to assess attitudes towards deceased (DOD) and living organ donation (LOD) of young people
The sample was structured in a way as to compare attitudes of young adults wellinformed about transplantation with those unfamiliar with it and test if well-informed young adults tend to support systems of altruistic organ donation while those unfamiliar with it tend to be in favor of models of financial incentives more often
Summary
There is an ongoing expert debate with regard to financial incentives in order to increase organ supply. There is a lacuna of empirical studies on whether citizens would support financial incentives for organ donation. The vast majority shows a passive willingness to donate, statistics do not indicate any increase in the actual supply of organs [1]. Due to the current German organ allocation scandal Several transplantation clinics came under investigation following allegations that doctors had falsified patients’ data or abnormally interpreted allocation rules to privilege their own patients. While criminal investigations and new regulations try to rebuild public trust, the general question remains whether this will be sufficient to meet the needed number of transplantation organs in the future
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