The Role of Moral Beliefs and Altruism in Explaining Attitudes toward Organ Donation with the Mediation of Act to Religious Beliefs

Donation and transplantation of the human organ are a subject of discussion in scientific-social circles and the need for it grows day by day. Many variables affect the attitude toward organ donation, one of which is moral beliefs. In fact, what the majority of people admire, is considered moral by ones adhere to moralities, while what the majority of people condemn, is considered as immorality. Altruism is another variable that is associated with attitudes to organ donation. There are two distinct forces in every human being. One of them is focused on the self and in the pursuit of self-interest, and the other is focused on the interest of others which is called altruism. A significant relationship has been observed between altruistic motivation and the tendency of people to donate organs. Another variable that can be associated with attitudes to organ donation, is the practice of religious beliefs. The religion is a truth that has a significant presence in human life, and religious beliefs are determining factors in the decision to donate organs, especially in the families of patients with brain death. Altruism and moral and religious beliefs have fundamental roles in the culture of organ donation. This study aimed to determine the role of moral beliefs and altruism in explaining attitudes toward organ donation with the mediation of act to religious beliefs.
This descriptive cross-sectional study which is based on Structural Equation Model, was conducted on 323 medical students of medical sciences of Azad and Public Universities in the cities of Miandoab and Mahabad in 2015, who were selected using Cochran formula and multi-stage cluster method. First, from the educational groups, 7 groups were randomly selected; then, from each cluster, 46 patients were selected by simple randomization. Researcher-made questionnaire of moral beliefs, altruism questionnaire of Carlo, Tihana scale of attitude to organ donation, and Nilson scale of practice of religious beliefs were used to collect information. In order to describe demographic data and calculate the Pearson correlation test, SPSS ver.22 software was used, while AMOS ver. 22 was used to draw and evaluate the fitting of the proposed model, and to study the direct and indirect effect of variables. Bootstrap method was used to test the mediation routes in the proposed model.
Ethical Considerations: After explaining the objectives and the importance of research, and putting emphasis on the confidentiality of information, verbal consent was obtained from the students for participation in the research.
Findings: There was a significant and positive correlation between the attitude toward organ donation with the variable of act to religious beliefs (r=0.442 and p=0.001), moral beliefs (r=0.416 and p=0.003), and altruism (r=0.298 and p=0.005). According to the index of fitness, chi-square to degrees of freedom ratio was calculated equal to 2.22, Comparative Fit Index equal to 0.99, Incremental Fit Index equal to 0.97, Normalized Fit Index equal to 0.96, and Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation equal to 0.08, indicating that the final model has a good fit. Also, direct route of the all routes existing in variables in the model is significant at p Findings in the final model confirm the direct impact of altruistic and moral beliefs on the attitudes to organ donation, and also the indirect effect of altruistic and moral beliefs with mediation of practice of religious beliefs on the attitude toward organ donation. It can be concluded that the students show the moral and popular behaviors as preferring he interests of patients in need of organ donation, listening sympathetically to their concerns, and trying to mitigate the suffering of these patients through organ donation reception. According to the effect of moral beliefs, altruism, and act to religious beliefs on attitude toward organ donation, student's positive attitudes towards organ donation can be increased by promoting moral beliefs through individual and group educations. Correlation study was seen as a limitation, and it cannot be said that predictor variables are the main cause of the criterion variable. Therefore, it is suggested to study the effect of other psychological and social characteristics on attitude toward organ donation. Moreover, since questionnaires were completed in a self-reported method, there was no possibility of bias in the response. Hence, in order to increase the generalizability of the findings, it is recommended to conduct the study in a more broadly using the methods of interview, observation and application of their results.