Objective: Organ donation is becoming more important with increasing organ transplantation possibilities. We aimed to determine the knowledge, sociocultural view, and influences of religious belief regarding opinions on organ donation.
Material and method: This study was based on a self-administered survey questionnaire distributed via the Internet. The study sample was sent to Internet communication groups.
Results: Three hundred and seventeen participants completed the survey: 39.4% of respondents said that they would definitely donate their organs; 6.9% would only give via live donation; 51.4% were undetermined; and 2.2% absolutely refused to donate. Muslim respondents favored organ donation (36.5%) and linked it to religious reasons (6.3%). Only 4 (1.3%) of the 6 (1.9%) Muslim respondents who said they would definitely not donate did so because they felt that organ donation was religiously inappropriate. Of 22 Muslim participants (7.3%), 5 (1.6%) attributed the idea of living donation to religious reasons and 11 (3.6%) did not have enough information. The atheist respondents believed that the reason for organ donation was to do someone else a favor (88.8%). The deist and agnostic believers also ascribed to this view. In order to evaluate the effects of cultural causes, we examined regional responses and found that 85 of the 196 participants in the Marmara Region would definitely donate organs, 18 would do so only for live donations, and 5 would definitely not donate.
Conclusion: Religious and cultural factors affect people's decision to donate their organs. In the survey we conducted on Turkish responders, we saw that religious causes are particularly effective in organ donation.
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