Carol,
I can't imagine any plea more worth spreading on any listserve than that
everyone who can, should become organ donors.
Know that your daughter will surely be in the thoughts of all on TIPS who
read your story.
I second Beth's reply.
Not too long ago, and I forget the context in which it occurred, we were talking informally about organ donation in one of my classes and after a short discussion I proceeded to ask the class how many students had signed their driver licenses for organ donation. I immediately recognized, after asking, that students felt uncomfortable about the question. Realizing that no hands were going to be raised (and none were raised) I proceeded to give a short pep talk to encourage them to become organ donors. At one point, however, a couple of the students expressed their concerns about becoming organ donors because they suspected that in the event of an accident where they might be on the verge of dying doctors might hasten their death if they knew they were organ donors. I tried to assure them that such a scenario was unlikely, but I doubt that I was able to convince anyone.
I don't really know anything about the psychology of organ donation, but my sense is that there is significant public resistance to becoming organ donors. What is the nature of this resistance? Is it perhaps grounded on some on religious beliefs? Is it ignorance? Is it based on fears such as those my students expressed?
After a brief search I found this paper which I hope to get at some point: Skowronski, J. J. (1997). On the psychology of organ donation: Attitudinal and situational factors related to the willingness to be an organ donor. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 19, 427-456.
But, there must be other literature out there on this topic.
Miguel
Miguel Roig, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Notre Dame Division of St. John's College
St. John's University
300 Howard Avenue
Staten Island, New York 10301
Voice: (718) 390-4513
Fax: (718) 390-4347
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~roigm
On plagiarism and ethical writing: http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~roigm/plagiarism/
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