ESOT 2011 Report – Donation and religious beliefs

Researchers from Luton, Bedfordshire presented data on the views of organ donation from different congregations across the UK.

The UK transplant waiting list shows 8,000 people waiting for an organ; 23% are people from south Asian and African-Caribbean minority ethnic communities who account for 8% of the total population. This group is three-to-four times more likely to develop end stage renal failure and need a kidney transplant, but are likely to wait twice as longer to receive one. Audit data shows that these families are 70% more likely to decline consent to deceased organ removal compared to 40% from the white population. The most common reason for declining deceased organ removal was the belief that desecration of the deceased body was not permissible within their faith. The presented study explored the views of different congregations to the concept of ‘giving a gift, and doing good deeds’ from a theological perspective and considered whether this concept could be stretched to cover giving the gift of life through deceased organ donation.

The researchers interviewed 13 focus groups across 10 faiths in three diverse locations of the UK. The focus groups were tape recorded and the data was transcribed verbatim. A thematic approach to data analysis was used.

The results presented showed that most participants agreed that the concept of giving/gifting from a theological perspective could be stretched to cover deceased organ donation. However, some were reluctant to make this link because they believed that desecration of the deceased body was not permissible within their faith.

The researchers concluded that, “Until more is done to raise awareness for the need of organs and of what is religiously permissible in terms of deceased organ donations, the congregation will be prevented from making an informed decision and the question of whether to ‘gift or not to gift’ will remain a perplexing one.”

Reference:

O-261 – ‘TO GIFT OR NOT TO GIFT?’ EXPLORING VIEWS ON DECEASED ORGAN DONATION FROM DIFFERENT CONGREGATIONS ACROSS THE UK. Kulwinder Kaur-Bola, Gurch Randhawa, University of Bedfordshire, Institute for Health Research, Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom