A Profile of Australian Adults Who Have Discussed Their Posthumous Organ Donation Wishes With Family Members

The use of nudges—“low-cost, choice-preserving, behaviorally informed approaches to regulatory problems”—has become quite popular at the national level in the past decade or so. Examples include changing the default concerning employees’ saving for retirement in a bid to encourage such saving; altering the default about consent to posthumous organ donation to increase the supply of organs for transplantation; and informing people about other people's energy consumption to spur them to reduce theirs. Nudges are therefore used to promote the welfare of the people being nudged, and of society at large. However, the use of nudges has sparked a lively normative debate. When turning to the international arena, new arguments for and against nudges can be raised. This essay focuses on the normative aspects of using nudges in the international arena.

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Intrafamilial Organ Donation Is Often an Altruistic Act

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics ◽

10.1017/s0963180103121147 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 116-118 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Aaron Spital

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Organ Donation ◽

Genetic Relationship ◽

Perceived Support Among Families Deciding About Organ Donation for Their Loved Ones: Donor Vs Nondonor Next Of Kin

American Journal of Critical Care ◽

10.4037/ajcc2010396 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 19 (5) ◽

pp. e52-e61 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

Liva Jacoby ◽

James Jaccard

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Care ◽

Organ Donation ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Quality Care ◽

Family Members ◽

Care Staff ◽

Next Of Kin ◽

Perceived Quality Of Care ◽

Brain Dead

BackgroundFamilies’ experiences in the hospital influence their decisions about donating organs of brain-dead relatives. Meeting families’ support needs during this traumatic time is an obligation and a challenge for critical care staff.Objectives(1) To elicit family members’ accounts of various types of support received and perceived quality of care for themselves and their loved ones when they made the donation decision, and (2) to examine the relationship between these factors and the families’ donation decision.MethodsRetrospective telephone interviews of 199 families from different regions of the country were completed. Aside from demographic data, the survey addressed perceptions of informational, emotional, and instrumental support and quality of care.ResultsOne hundred fifty-four study participants consented to donation; 45 declined. White next of kin were significantly more likely than African Americans to consent. Specific elements of reported support were significantly associated with consent to donate. Donor and nondonor families had differing perceptions of quality care for themselves and their loved ones. Receiving understandable information about organ donation was the strongest predictor of consent.ConclusionsSpecific supportive behaviors by staff as recounted by family members of potential donors were significantly associated with consent to donation. These behaviors lend themselves to creative training and educational programs for staff. Such interventions are essential not only for next of kin of brain-dead patients, but also for staff and ultimately for the public as a whole.

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Role of Organ Donation in Helping Family Members Cope with Grief

Personal Care in an Impersonal World: A Multidimensional Look At Bereavement ◽

10.2190/pcic11 ◽

1993 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Maryse Pelletier

Keyword(s):

Organ Donation ◽

Family Members

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Abstract 16: Sex Disparities in Organ Donation: Finding an Equal Donor Pool

Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes ◽

10.1161/hcq.13.suppl_1.16 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (Suppl_1) ◽

Author(s):

Erika Yee ◽

Seyedeh Maryam Hosseini ◽

Bianca Duarte ◽

Shannon Knapp ◽

Nancy K Sweitzer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organ Donation ◽

Family Member ◽

Family Members ◽

Organ Donor ◽

Medical Mistrust ◽

Organ Donors ◽

Donor Pool ◽

Men And Women ◽

Willingness To Donate ◽

Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Introduction: The majority of living organ donors are women, and the majority of deceased organ donors are men. This poses a problem for transplant candidates who have worsened survival with sex mismatched organs. The objective of this study was to identify reasons for disparities in organ donation between sexes and identify strategies to increase organ donors. Methods: We conducted a fifteen question survey using a crowdsourcing marketplace, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, in September 2019. The survey assessed how participants make decisions about becoming an organ donor. The survey was distributed to U.S. adult participants, including eight write-in questions and two Likert scale questions. Qualitative descriptive analyses were used to understand reasons for and against becoming an organ donor. Quantitative results were compared with t test. Results: Among the 667 eligible participants representing 49 states, 54.9% were women and 63.1% were in the 18-40 age group. The majority of men (64.8%) and women (63.4%) were registered organ donors. Among men and women donors, three themes guided their willingness to donate: desire to help others, personal experience with organ donors/recipients, and believing organs would have no use to the donor once dead. Among men and women non-donors, decisions were guided by three themes: no reason, medical mistrust, considering becoming a donor. Themes varied by sex when considering whether to donate organs of a deceased family member. Women were guided equally by two themes: family member’s wishes and believing the deceased family member had no further use for organs. Men had similar themes but valued the family member’s wishes more. Women’s willingness to donate their own organs to family members (p=0.03) and strangers (p=0.02) was significantly higher than men. Among non-donors, both sexes would consider becoming organ donors if more information was provided. Conclusion: In a national survey of adults, women and men had similar reasons for becoming and not becoming an organ donor. However compared to men, women were more willing to donate their organs and more altruistic in the donation of family members’ organs. Women’s deceased organ donation may increase with further communication of women’s wishes before death and by improved public education about organ donation.

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Role of Organ Donation in Helping Family Members Cope with Grief*

Personal Care in an Impersonal World: A Multidimensional Look at Bereavement ◽

10.4324/9781315223926-13 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 157-166

Author(s):

Maryse Pelletier

Keyword(s):

Organ Donation ◽

Family Members

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Trauma Patients’ Attitudes toward Organ Donation at an Urban Level I Trauma Center

The American Surgeon ◽

10.1177/000313481808400957 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 84 (9) ◽

pp. 1493-1497

Author(s):

John D. Cull ◽

Katarina Ivkovic ◽

Benjamin Manning ◽

Edie Y. Chan

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Organ Donation ◽

Trauma Center ◽

Family Members ◽

Organ Donor ◽

The United States ◽

Trauma Patients ◽

Willingness To Donate ◽

Patient Responses ◽

Level I

Many health-care workers (HCWs) surveyed at a trauma center believed their patients distrusted the organ allocation system. This study compares urban trauma patients’ (TPs) attitudes toward organ donation with attitudes from the 2012 National Survey of Organ Donation Attitudes (NSODA). TPs presenting to the trauma clinic between September 2014 and August 2015 were surveyed. Patient responses were compared with the 2012 NSODA. One hundred and thirty-three TPs (95.0%) responded to the survey. Compared with the 2012 NSODA, groups were similar with regard to a patient's desire for OD after death (Trauma: 62.4% [Confidence interval [CI]: 53.6–70.7] vs NSODA: 59.3% [CI: 56.6–61.8]) and the belief that doctors are less likely to save their life if they are an organ donor (24.8% [CI: 17.7–33.0] vs 19.6% [CI: 18.3–21.0]). Approximately, 30 per cent of patients believed discrimination prevented minority patients from receiving transplants (27.1 [CI: 19.7–35.5] vs 30.3 [CI: 28.8–31.9]). TPs were less likely than the NSODA group to donate a family members’ organs, if they did not know the family members’ wishes (56.4% [CI: 47.5–65.0] vs 75.6% [CI: 68.7–71.8]); TPs were less likely to believe the United States transplant system uses a fair approach to distribute organs (47.4% [38.7–56.2] vs 64.6% [CI: 63.0–66.2]). Adjusting for race, both groups were similar in their willingness to donate a family members’ organs; black TPs were less likely to believe the United States transplant system, which follows a fair approach in distributing organs (43.0% [CI: 32.4–54.2] vs 63.7% [59.7–67.6]). Despite HCWs perceptions, TPs had a positive view of OD. Educating HCWs on patient attitudes toward OD may decrease institutional barriers to OD.

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