Perception of Organ and Corpse Donation Among Students of Basic Medical Sciences

Abstract

In this era of great health challenges, organ donation may be the only intervention to failing and failed organs. Organ donation is willingly accepting to donate an organ or part of an organ to someone with a failing organ or failed organ. There are very few voluntary donations. Cadavers a major tool in the study of anatomy is gotten through unclaimed bodies, corpse from condemned criminals and donation of corpse for teaching and research. This cross sectional survey includes 707 students, 390 dissecting students and 317 non dissecting students from the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Delta State University Abraka. Structured questionnaires were administered to the student and date analysed. This was done to know the perception of student to organ and corpse donation and to assess if dissection affects the willingness to donate one’s organ or corpse for research. Result generally showed a negative attitude to organ and corpse donation. Only 5.9% considered donating their organs and 4.1% considered donating their corpse for research. The poor attitude towards organ and body donation may be attributed to people not wanting their body to be disrespected (30%), fear of the effect of donation (23%), religious beliefs (10%), and traditional beliefs (6%). Surprisingly lack of awareness to donation of organs and corpse accounted for a few percentages.

Would you donate your body? Attitudes of students of nursing and physiotherapy towards body donation for educational and scientific purposes

“…In another study, conducted in Nigeria, the researchers asked medical students about their knowledge concerning body donation after death. The research conclusion was the most of them had no knowledge about it [22].…”

Attitudes of Undergraduate South African Students towards Body Donation

“…The reasons for ancestors not permitting body donation were that it "it is against tradition" and "it disturbs the spirit"; however, no statistically significant association or relationship was obtained. These views may be based on the culture of ancestral veneration that is prevalent amongst Black Africans (Adamo, 2011 Anyanwu et al (2014) Nigeria Africa Medical students 13 % (105) S aha et al (2015) India Asia Medical students 6 % (100) Ebeye et al (2016) Nigeria Africa Basic medical science and medical students 4.1 % (707) Mwachaka et al (2016) Kenya, Nairobi Africa Medical students and surgical residents 22.2 % (72) Abbasi Asl et al (2016) Iran, Kashan Asia Medical Science 25.4 % (331) De Gama et al (2016) KwaZulu-Natal, eThekwini Africa Medical science, medical and allied health students 14.7 % (372) Limitations of this study were that it focused on Black African undergraduate students only. Recent studies have also incorporated postgraduate students and surgical residents.…”

“…In addition, cadaver dissection plays a vital role in the education of undergraduates around the world (Cahill & Ettarh, 2008;Perry & Ettarh, 2009;Saha et al, 2015;Ebeye et al, 2016). This practice of dissection has also been stated to not only favour the teaching of the foundations of anatomy, but also the development of professional competencies (Korf et al).…”

“…A review of the literature demonstrated at least six studies that investigated students attitudes towards body donation (Perry & Ettarh;Alexander et al;Saha et al;Ebeye et al;Mwachaka et al;Abbasi Asl et al, 2017). The first study conducted in Ireland determined influence of age on the attitudes of medical students towards body donation (Perry & Ettarh) while the second study conducted in Australia investigated attitudes of chiropractic students on whether cadaver-based anatomy instruction decreased support for body donation, in addition to investigating the influence of religion and ethnicity on support for body donation (Alexander et al).…”

Does Confucianism allow for body donation?

“…This is misleading on both counts, as neither represents a coherent body of ethical thinking. Ethical attitudes toward body donation vary from one society to another, depending on the degree to which they are influenced by cultural and/or religious stances, as brought out for instance in Buddhism (Winkelmann and Güldner, ; Lin et al, ; Guo‐Fang and Yueh‐Jan, ; Subasinghe and Jones, ), various Black African populations (Gangata et al, ; De Gama ; Ebeye et al, ), and Maori in New Zealand (Webb and Shaw, ). Anatomists find difficulty in contending with these differences as they demand an understanding of these socio‐cultural contexts, tending instead to see the world of body donation from a limited Western scientific perspective.…”