In this paper, a survey is conducted to study the attitudes of Hong Kong re
sidents towards organ donation after death. It is found that 60.3% of the r
espondents are willing to donate organs, which is comparable to those cited
in the literature. The results also indicate that the willingness to donat
e is related to age, occupation and attitude. A factor analysis of attitude
s yielded four factors, including form of burial, altruism, lack of underst
anding on organ donation and lack of confidence in professional conduct of
medical doctors. Further analysis of the factor scores provides information
that is useful to the design of effective public education programs in org
an donation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.