**4. Volunteering**

The word 'voluntary' comes from the Old French word 'voluntaire', which was derived from 'voluntarius', whose Latin root is 'voluntas'. The root of the word 'voluntary' is 'voluntas', meaning 'will' in Latin, which means that the individual undertakes a task with their own will and wish. On the other hand, as the Oxford English Dictionary states, what is 'voluntary' is a phenomenon that is 'not restricted or reminded or suggested by someone else's assistance'. 'Volunteer' is also used for 'deliberate action' and when it is used for gifts, it means giving freely or spontaneously to another person [25].

Volunteer in the current Turkish Dictionary of the Turkish Language Association is defined as "a person who willingly undertakes to do a job without any obligation". In the context of consent, "volunteering" refers to the right of a person to make personal decisions independent of the influence of any internal and external factors. In the Dictionary of Bioethics Terms, volunteering is defined as the situation of a person who decides to do a job with their free will and does it without waiting for anything in return. In volunteering, there should not be any force, obligation, or pressure that drives a person. Respect for individual autonomy is the basis of volunteering. Volunteering is considered an ethical basis in medicine, especially in organ transplantation [8]. Ethically, volunteering is one of the basic elements of informed consent. The "volunteer person" must have the characteristics of the person authorized to give informed consent (sound mind) defined by law. Volunteering should be analyzed in the presence of appropriate and adequate information and the absence of psychological coercion and external pressure. From this point of view, we see that the conditions related to volunteering are in parallel with the conditions required for autonomous action [1]. Not only do medical or psychosocial factors play a role in the selection process by living donors, but every medical professional, lawyer or ethicist agrees that the decision to donate must be voluntary and informed. However, proving the determination of volunteering is not always easy; it requires intense effort. For the consent to be meaningful, the process must also be carried out in a meaningful way. In other words, consent must be voluntary. This is not a surprising statement and everyone agrees that volunteering is important. However, it should not be forgotten that volunteering is a concept that can be quickly overlooked and create a dangerous situation in the daily practice of medicine.

Although organ donations from living donors are commendable, it should not be forgotten that they are considered voluntary. For living donors to make sure they do not make inappropriate decisions within their own values and views on selfsacrifice, risk, or similar topics, transplant teams need to present the criteria they use to select living donors to the community. For policies and practices supporting living donations to be morally acceptable, they should not turn into a means of influence or pressure [7]. In this sense, the concept of volunteering or the opposite, reluctance, is important.

In the evaluation of whether a person is a volunteer for organ donation, there are signs that appear not only in words but also in behaviors and give us clues in determining volunteering; for example, the donor comes for the tests alone, tries to learn the results, does not lean his head forward when the organ donation decision is made, or insists on being a donor, etc. [26]. But what exactly is volunteering?
