Public opinion on organ donation in Saudi arabia

Abstract EN

To evaluate factors affecting the knowledge and / or attitudes of the Saudi Arabian public with respect to organ donation and transplantation, a cross sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 948 Saudi citizens between 20 -60 years of age during 2005.

The collected data included : knowledge about organ donation campaigns, knowledge of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT), religious knowledge towards related issues, attitudes toward organ donation and self or close-relative experience of organ transplantation.

The study revealed that 58.5 % of participants heard about the existence of SCOT, 91.1 % knew the need for organ donation, and 92.7 knew that organ donation could save lives.

The organ donation campaign was known to 62.3 % of the participants.

Of these participants, 57.9 % were made aware of organ donation campaigns through TV ads, 52.8 % from magazines and newspapers and 11.7 % from scientific sources.

While 23.7 % of the participants were unaware of any issued Islamic fatwa regarding organ donation, another 36.1 % did not respond to this question revealing a lack of knowledge.

Forty-two percent of the respondents agreed to donate their organs after death.

Among the various reasons against organ donation, 27.5 % feared that the act of organ donation contradicted their religious beliefs, while 3.5 % believed that there was no benefit to organ donation.

It is concluded that a need for proper information dissemination exists.

A multidisciplinary approach is suggested including government support backed by strong recommendations from knowledgeable religious sources.