**2.1. Potential reasons for the present crisis**

**4.** Medical teams are largely untrained in organ donation because of insufficient education

**5.** The decision about organ donor after death, or the response of relatives to donation requests,

**b.** The Freudian notion that nobody thinks about his or her own death until a loved one

**c.** The ancient idea that the integrity of the body is mandatory for the pathway to eternity [11].

**e.** Beliefs that the organs will first go to the rich and only then to the poor [14–16].

People are not informed about the beneficial impact of transplantation on health budgets, that is, transplantation can reduce the cost of diseases, which would otherwise have to be treated

These myths, misinformation and prejudices are barriers that weaken the instincts of solidar-

Regarding the aforementioned negative factors on donation, it is important to emphasize the importance of two of them: fear of death and respect for the integrity of the body that are not essentially linked to ignorance and/or bad information. Surveys on the behavior of university students regarding the implication of fear of death as an inhibition factor in the acceptance of organ donation and transplants were investigated in different studies. These surveys showed that negative attitudes toward organ donation were associated with higher fears of death and dying of the self and less strongly with higher fears of the death and dying of others. A study showed that students without donor card and with reservations about donation scored significantly higher fear of physical destruction. Possible implications of these findings for medical education and future research are suggested. It was mentioned that given the urgency, attitude toward organ donation should be considered a civic responsibility transforming an unfortunate yet inevitable event into something that positively affects someone else [20–22].

Body integrity, it also remains a central issue for negative behavior toward organ donation. Fear of mutilation is the fear of losing any part of our body structure, the idea of having limits in the mobility of our body or of losing the integrity of any organ, part of the body or natural function. These ideas can generate ethical and moral inhibitory behaviors regarding the treatment that our bodies or those of loved ones receive at the time of death. These reflections regarding the conservation of the body's image play a significant role in the decision of

Understanding that those factors can limit the potential supply of available organs for transplantation, the suggestion that our body after death as a unique and irreplaceable source of

on this matter [4–7].

dies [10].

awakens primal fears such as:

**a.** The instinct of self-preservation [9].

50 Organ Donation and Transplantation - Current Status and Future Challenges

by expensive long-term therapy [17, 18].

families toward donation [23].

**d.** The fears concerning a diagnosis of brain death [12, 13].

The media has featured stories about criminal "organ commerce" [19].

ity and altruism, arousing selfishness and uncertainties.
