Organ Donation in the EU.Personal Willingness to Donate vs. Willingness to give Consent as a Relative

Transplantable organs are scarce in every country. To increase the number of available organ donors, more understanding of the factors driving organ donation rates is needed. This study examines the impact of several factors influencing the willingness to donate personally and the willingness to give consent for donation of a relative’s organs after death. Data used was from Eurobarometer surveys in 2002, 2006 and 2009, supplemented with data related to several country characteristics. Results of a logistic regression showed that several factors were associated with the willingness to donate. An interaction term is included to examine the relationship between a legislation system used in a country and people’s awareness of this legislation system. The results indicate that more knowledge and a ‘left’ political position (commitment to society) are strongly related to the personal willingness to donate, while health status (good or bad, as well as having a longstanding illness) is closely related to the willingness to give consent. Religion performs well as predictor of personal willingness to donate, though there are chances to utilize the positive attitude of religion more by religious leaders providing better information. To conclude, the probability of willingness to donate is slightly lower in presumed consent systems. This probability is higher when there is also knowledge of the legislation. However, the latter finding might be mainly explained by the impact of knowledge. Therefore, a change to a presumed consent system is not direct the solution to improve the willingness to donate.