Fear of death and willingness to consider organ donation among medical students

The present study represents an attempt to examine the relationship of fear of death and willingness to consider organ donation. A group of 124 medica l students, 72 entering and 52 graduating from university, aged 19-37 years , completed a fear of death and dying scale (FVTS of Ochsmann) and a questi onnaire about behavioral and attitude variables concerning organ donation. There were no significant sex and age differences on the FVTS in the total sample. Ist-year medical students had higher scores for the fear of meeting death related to lacking experiences with dying friends or patients. Selec ted item analyses for focus groups of students, who were for or against org an donation, had reservations about donation or had signed an organ donor c ard, revealed only a few significant differences on the FVTS. Both students without donor card and with reservations about donation scored significant ly higher for fear of physical destruction. Organ donor card holders, howev er, scored significantly lower and accepted autopsy and anatomic dissection of their corpses twice as frequently as the others. Possible implications of these findings for medical education and future research are addressed.