Winning Hearts and Minds: Using Psychology to Promote Voluntary Organ Donation

Recent psychological research concerning determinantsof and barriers to organ donation is reviewed with theintention of ascertaining acceptable and potentiallyeffective ways of improving organ retrieval. On thebasis of this review, five recommendations are made.(1) Individuals' donation wishes, where explicit,should be decisive. (2) Next of kin should witnessdonor decisions. (3) Mandated choice should replacevoluntary `opting-in'. (4) Initial donation choicesshould be repeatedly re-evaluated. (5) Those involvedin organ procurement should distance themselves frommodel of bodies as machines or gardens and embracemodels where bodies are viewed as sacred extensions ofself. In combination, these recommendations are arguedto be preferable in several ways to opt-out/presumedconsent procurement options.