Religio-cultural facilitators and barriers in decision-making on organ donation: The experiences of families of brain-dead patients in Iran

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the experiences of families of brain-dead patients regarding religio-cultural facilitators and barriers in decision-making for organ donation. This is a qualitative descriptive study, in which a total of eighteen families of brain-dead patients were recruited using purposive sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. After recording and transcribing the interviews, concepts were extracted using conventional content analysis. The main theme was entitled “religio-cultural facilitators and barriers in decision-making on organ donation” and consisted of four main categories, including two facilitators of “life-giving culture” and “life-giving sacredness” and two barriers of “decision-making skepticism” and “opportunity-burning religiousization”. Therefore, cultural and religious issues require further attention and a more realistic and logical cultural and religious perspective toward organ donation should be created at the societal level.

Acknowledgments

The researchers would like to thank all participants in this study.

Ethical approval

Prior to the beginning of the study and after obtaining approval from the Regional Ethics Committee for Medical Research (Ethics No. IR.UMSU.REC.1401.101), the researcher obtained written informed consent from all participants and explained the research objectives to them. In order to consider ethical considerations, the researcher assured them that the information obtained would remain confidential.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Vice-Chancellor of Research and Technology of Urmia University of Medical Sciences under contract number 11486. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.