Mapping French Laypeople's Views Regarding Living Organ Donation

French laypeople's views on living organ donation (LOD) were examined.

From 2010 to 2014, 327 adults (including 21 nurses) judged the acceptability of LOD in 60 realistic scenarios composed of all combinations of 5 factors: 1. type of organ; 2. whether it could have been obtained from a cadaver; 3. donor-recipient relationship; 4. donor's level of autonomy; 5. financial compensation; and 6. patients' level of responsibility for their illness. In all scenarios, the patients were in need of a kidney or liver transplantation. The ratings were subjected to cluster analysis and analyses of variance.

Five qualitatively different positions were found that were termed Free Market (22%), Pragmatism (15%), Altruism (48%), Always Acceptable (7%), and Undetermined (8%). Nurses comprised the majority (90%) of the members of the altruism cluster. Younger and more-educated people were, more frequently than older and less-educated people, members either of the pragmatism or of the free market cluster.

Half of French adults support the altruism model of LOD. A substantial minority, however, mostly young and more educated people, support alternative models allowing the introduction of financial incentives.