Personal and Human Rights Attitudes Toward Global Organ Donation Practices

Abstract

To reduce the global shortage of life-saving human organs, four controversial policies have emerged in some nations today: Transplant Tourism, Mandated Prisoner Donation, Free Market Sales, Presumed Consent. How do people regard these practices? Here, 127 students in five colleges in New York City completed a survey rating each of these four practices on a 0-9 scale, how much they regarded that practice as a “human rights issue” (HR), and how much they “personally accepted” that practice (PA); After a brief informational message on these four practices, they completed a post-survey using the same scales. Three results emerged: (a) Students were extremely divided in their ratings of all four practices, with scores ranging from 0 to 9, in near-bimodal distributions (overall HR mean= 23.0, s.d.= 9.2, PA mean= 16.0, s.d.= 9.5). (b) These ratings were unchanged after hearing details on these four practices (total HR mean= 23.3, s.d.= 10.6, PA mean=15.5, s.d.= 10.4). (c) There were a few possible demographic correlates of one's attitudes—one's gender, political affiliation, and whether one considered registering to be an organ donor themselves. Future research can improve upon the limitations of the current study--including a longer and more powerful video message, and modification of the survey for clearer responding.