Abstract
Organ donation is below the expected number of cadaver donors (ppm) per million population in the world. The country with the highest number of cadaver donors per million in the world is Spain. In 2019, it was determined the number of cadaver donors per million as 48,9 in Spain. At the same year, in Turkey, the number of cadaver donors per million was determined as 7,54. There are many reasons why number of cadaver donors in Turkey is low. Main reasons are religious ground and insufficient knowledge. A large number of studies, the major factor for determining the attitudes towards organ donation is seem to be religion and religiosity. With the religiosity level of people in Turkey, the attitudes towards organ donation are becoming more important. For this reason, there is a need in literature for new studies that related to the relation between organ donation and religion. Therefore, the aim of this research is to fill the gap on the relation religiosity among organ donation in the literature. Under the guidance of studies dealing with the relationship between individual religion, religious practices and organ donation attitudes, the following hypotheses were tested: 1. The attitudes towards organ donation differentiated by gender. 2. The religious practices and individual religiosity differentiated by gender. 3. There is a positive correlation between the dimension of benevolence & moral values/belief values, and religious practices & individual religiosity. 4. There is a negative correlation between the dimension of benevolence & moral/belief values, and fear of medical neglect & bodily injury. 5. Religious practice predicts the values of benevolence, moral/belief values, fear of medical neglect, and fear of bodily injury. 6. Individual religiosity predicts the values of benevolence, moral/belief values, fear of medical neglect, and fear of bodily injury. 7. The value of benevolence and the dimension of moral/belief values predict both the fear of medical neglect and bodily injury.
In this study, religiosity and the attitudes towards organ donation was examined. Religiosity was examined as religious practices and individual religion. The attitudes towards organ donation have two aspects called as positive and negative. The positive aspect of attitudes towards organ donation consists of the value of charity and moral/belief, at the same time the negative aspect of it consists of the fear of medical neglect and bodily injury.
The sample of research consisted of 205 (M: 26,3%, F: 73,7%) university students. The average age of the participants was determined to be 21.56. In this research, the scale of attitudes towards organ donation, the scale of religiosity practices and the inventory of individual religiosity were used to measure the variable of religiosity. The scale of attitudes towards organ donation was developed by Parisi and Katz. The scale of religious practices was developed by Ayten and the inventory of individual religiosity was developed by Zagumny et al. The scales used in the study were statistically reliable and validity.
In this study's results, it was seen that a statistically significant level of differentiation was found in the dimension of bodily injury fear, which represents the negative level of attitudes towards organ donation by gender. Moreover, the level of religious worship was also differated by gender. In the considering the relations, the individual religiosity was correlated with the values of benevolence and moral/belief. Additionally, a significant correlation was also found between the sub-dimensions of attitudes toward organ donation. In study, it was also found that there was a statistical regression relation between individual religiosity and sub-dimension of attitudes towards organ donation which are the value of benevolence and moral/belief. According to the findings of this study, it is possible to say that the dimension of benevolence and moral/belief values that constitute the positive aspect of the attitudes towards organ donation were negatively regression relations with the fear of medical neglect and bodily injury that constitute the negative aspect of attitudes towards organ donation.