Effect of media presentations on willingness to commit to organ donation

Abstract

We examine how presentations of organ donation cases in the media may affect people-s willingness to sign organ donation commitment cards, donate the organs of a deceased relative, support the transition to an -opt-out- policy, or donate a kidney while alive. We found that providing identifying information about the prospective recipient (whose life was saved by the donation) increased the participants- willingness to commit to organ donation themselves, donate the organs of a deceased relative, or support a transition to an -opt-out- policy. Conversely, identifying the deceased donor tended to induce thoughts of death rather than about saving lives, resulting in fewer participants willing to donate organs or support measures that facilitated organ donation. A study of online news revealed that identification of the donor is significantly more common than identification of the recipient in the coverage of organ donation cases-with possibly adverse effects on the incidence of organ donations.