Tan Li En, 16

School: CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School

Topic: Are youths apathetic towards organ donation?

Award: Second Place, Senior Category, 2021

Ageing populations are a global trend and many countries around the world are grappling with a rise in the proportion of elderly citizens. This phenomenon has led to a surge in the incidence of diseases that may eventually require organ transplant as treatment. Globally, 422 million people were diagnosed with diabetes in 2014, a sharp increase from 108 million in 1980. (World Health Organization, 2021) The rising prevalence of such diseases has contributed to a growing organ demand and need to raise organ donation rates. Youths, as leaders of the future, have the power to spark conversations and influence their family on organ donation, and are essential in efforts to increase organ donor rates. One point of view is that since many youths are less religious than older adults, and also express desire to help those in need, the majority of youths are highly supportive of organ donation. However, some also feel that due to their lack of knowledge on the topic of organ donation as well as a lack of maturity, youths may still be apathetic towards organ donation and show reluctance in actively pledging their organs for donation.

Youths are more willing to donate their organs as many feel that they would be doing a charitable act and doing their part to help the disadvantaged. Most youths have expressed that they are largely supportive towards organ donation. In a study conducted in two high schools in Turkey, more than half of the high school students said that they wanted to donate their organs. As for the reasons for their desire to donate their organs, 49.16% answered “because I feel happy when I give someone the gift of life”, the most common reason given. (Cetin et al., 2014) Another study in Iran conducted on high school female students also found that 92% of students expressed willingness for deceased organ donation, of which 51% wanted to help the needy, and a further 38% both desired to further scientific study and fulfil charitable purposes. (Sanavi et al., 2012) This illustrates how the majority of youths today are open to the idea of organ donation as they believe that through their donation, they would be helping to save someone’s life. Hence, youths are not apathetic towards organ donation, but rather are largely willing to donate their organs for altruistic purposes.

In addition, youths are also more supportive towards organ donation because they are less superstitious and religious compared to the older generation. Religious and cultural beliefs often inhibit willingness to donate organs. For example, Confucian beliefs about the proper disposition of corpses and filial piety, popular Chinese beliefs about spiritual presence in bodies after death and the fear of angering the ghost of someone whose body is subject to organ donation can influence many to be reluctant towards organ donation as they wish to bury the dead with their organs intact. (lkels, 1997) In Islam, mutilation and disfigurement of the human body in any way is forbidden, which leads Muslims to believe that organ donation is discouraged. (Abdeldayem et al., 2016) These superstitions and religious issues create a sense of reluctance to donate organs in many groups of people in society. However, youths tend to be more skeptical towards such beliefs. Many major religious organisations have also encouraged organ donation. For instance, most major Muslim institutions permit organ donation to alleviate pain or save lives, such as the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Grand Ulamas Council of Saudi Arabia. (Abdeldayem et al., 2016) This may push religious youths to be more accepting towards organ donation. In addition, youths today are less likely to be religious than the older generation. In a Singapore survey conducted in 2015, 23% of respondents aged 15-23 were not affiliated with any religion, compared to 14.6% of respondents aged 55 and above. (Zacchheus et al., 2016) The decline in the number of youths who subscribe to religious beliefs could contribute to an increase in the proportion of youths who are willing to donate their organs as less youths turn away from organ donation due to their religion. This could be one of the factors for why a survey conducted by a group of students from Hwa Chong Institution in Singapore found that 81.9% of those below the age of 30 were willing to donate their organs after death, which is considerably higher than 60.3% for those between the ages of 30-60 and 22% for those above 60. (Tan, 2014) Therefore, because youths are less likely to be religious or believe strongly in superstitions, they are less likely to be discouraged from organ donation because of their cultural or religious beliefs.

On the other hand, despite more youths expressing support for organ donations, the number of youths who have pledged their organs under opt-in organ donation schemes have remained low, showing that a large proportion of youths lack interest and enthusiasm towards organ donation. Even in countries where studies have shown that a large fraction of young adults were willing to donate their organs, the number of registered donors under opt-in schemes, where one would have to take the initiative to register their interest in donating their organs, are low. A study conducted on young adults aged 18-30 in the United Kingdom (UK) found that although almost two-thirds of participants agreed with donating their own organs, only 27% had signed up to the National Health Service (NHS) Organ Donor Registry, which was an opt-in scheme at the time the questionnaire was carried out in 2013. (Coad et al., 2013) This shows that young individuals often do not put their willingness into action by pledging to become an organ donor, which signals apathy among youths. The difference in numbers clearly illustrates how many young people in the UK do not have interest in pledging their organs for donation, and are reluctant to actively express their desire to donate their organs. Hence, even though youths may be open to organ donation, they are not proactive in pledging their organs for donation, suggesting that youths are apathetic towards organ donation.

Due to their young age, youths also tend to be less exposed to and informed on the topic of organ donation, and thus may feel uncomfortable with the idea of donating their organs, leading them to be ambivalent towards donating their organs. Lack of information given to young students and the absence of organ transplantation issues from the school curriculum leads to youths having limited knowledge of the organ donation process. Furthermore, younger teenagers may also lack maturity and thus may not possess the capacity to exhibit feelings of empathy and compassion, causing them to be disinterested in organ donation. In a Swedish study surveying students aged 15-18, although more than half the students in the ninth grade and two-thirds in the 11th grade reported that they had discussed issues on organ transplantation and donation in the past, these conversations were limited and had mostly taken place within their family. 72% of students reported some uneasiness at the thought of donating their organs, including those who had a positive attitude towards organ donation. The discomfort of a dead body being cut up was experienced by 39% of students and was the most common type of discomfort reported, followed by the discomfort at having one’s organs living on in another body, which was experienced by 32% of students. The study also found that 54% of female students had positive attitudes towards organ donation, compared to 47% of male students. This could be attributed to the higher levels of maturity that teenage girls generally have compared to teenage boys, leading them to express more responsibility for those who suffer from physical illnesses. (Sanner, 2002) Hence, this demonstrates that lack of maturity and exposure among youths could contribute to discomfort and apathy towards the idea of organ donation, and the inclusion of organ transplantation issues in the school curriculum to generate more conversation about the topic has the potential to influence youths to be more willing to pledge their organs for donation.

With an increase in the number of youths who are not religiously affiliated, many youths today have positive attitudes towards organ donation, compared to their older counterparts. Many youths also express their desire to help those in need through organ donation. However, due to their young age and lack of exposure to organ donation issues, there are a significant number of youths who may not feel comfortable or enthusiastic about the issue of organ donation, and this could lead to individuals not putting their willingness to donate their organs into action, as seen from the low number of organ donors in opt-in schemes. As youths are representatives of the future, it is essential to encourage youths to be interested and eager to donate their organs. More education about organ donation and the creation of open, safe spaces for conversations is key to create a culture of willingness to donate among youths.

References

1. World Health Organization. (2021). Diabetes. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes ↗ (opens in new tab)

2. Cetin, G., Turgut, M., & Kacar, H. (2014). High School Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes of Organ Donation and Organ Transplantation. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 2813-2818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.662 ↗ (opens in new tab)

3. Sanavi, S., Afshar, R., & Rajabi, M.-R. (2012). Attitude and willingness of high school students toward organ donation. Saudi Journal of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation, 23(5), 929. https://doi.org/10.4103/1319-2442.100863 ↗ (opens in new tab)

4. Abdeldayem, H., EI-Kased, A. F., Elshaarawy, A., Hammad, E. S., Al-Haddad, 0. K., Sobhi, G., & Allam, N. (2016). Religious Concepts in Organ Transplantation. Frontiers in Transplantology. https://doi.org/10.5772/62401 ↗ (opens in new tab)

5. Zacchheus, M., Pang, X. Q., & Ng, K. G. (2016, March 21). Youth in Singapore shunning religion. Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/youth-in-singapore-shunning-religion ↗ (opens in new tab)

6. Tan. E. (2014, October 18). Youth most open to organ donation after death: Poll. Today. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/youth-most-open-organ-donation-after-death-poll ↗ (opens in new tab)

7. Coad, L., Carter, N., & Ling, J. (2013). Attitudes of young adults from the UK towards organ donation and transplantation. Transplantation Research. 2(1), 9. https://doi.orq/10.1186/2047-1440-2-9 ↗ (opens in new tab)

8. Sanner, M. A. (2002). A Swedish survey of young people’s views on organ donation and transplantation. Transplant International, 15(12), 641-648. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1432-2277.2002.tb00124.x ↗ (opens in new tab)
   

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the essays for the Live On Festival 2021 are those of the participants and are not endorsed by the National Organ Transplant Unit (Ministry of Health).

To learn more about organ donation and organ transplantation in Singapore, please visit www.liveon.gov.sg ↗ (opens in new tab)