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

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.