Why Do People Donate Their Bodies to Science?
Authors: da Rocha Andrea Oxley , Thomaz Gabriela Dalla Giacomassa Rocha , Okabayashi Caio Seiti Mestre , Picanço João Marcelo Astolfi , Maues João Lins , Macedo Mateus Belmonte 
Published: June 2021

Objective

This study aims to analyze the motivations of the body donors subscribed at the Body Donation Program (BDP) at Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA).

Methods

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at UFCSPA (No. 721/2008). Data were gathered from the time of the program's creation, in January 2008, to June 2016, using a specific form filled out by the donors or their family members at the time of registration. All individuals who participated in the study completed and signed a consent form at the time of registration. The survey was formulated from 12 questions that included demographic data on gender, age, ethnicity, relationship status, educational and socioeconomic levels, as well as the reasons of the donation. The data were collected in the Database of the Body Donation Program and exported to SPSS version 20.0 for statistical analysis. Chi‐square tests of independence were used to analyze the existence of any statistically significant association between the categorical variables on the register. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 for all the analyses.

Results

Data from 414 donors registered in the BDP were analyzed. The entries of two people who dropped out of the program and of 9 entries relating the donated bodies of stillbirths/miscarriages were excluded from the analysis. The average number of registrations per year was 46 (SD ± 16.46); 72 bodies were received in the period of analysis. A total of 213 potential donors answered this question. Considering that the question regarding the motivations for donation allowed multiple responses (each donor could choose more than one alternative), the total number of answers was 319. Among the listed motivations, 200 (61.5%) answers corresponded to a desire for supporting society and science, 44 answers (13.5%) expressed a dislike for burial or cremation, 37 registrants (11.4%) expressed gratitude for the attention of doctors and other medical professional, 32 (9.8%) of the responders did not want to cause a financial burden for the family, 6 (1.8%) of them had no family, and another 6 (1.8%) had other motivations. Together, the desire to aid society and science, along with gratitude for the care received from health professionals stood out as strong motivators towards body donation (74.3%). An analysis of the association was conducted relating lower educational levels, lower income among the donors and motivations of the donation. A statistically significant association was found (p=0.04) between lower educational levels (maximum ‐ high school or technical school) and the motivation regarding the reluctance in causing a financial burden for the family. However, when analyzed the association between this motivation for donation and the donor's monthly income, no statistically significant association was found.

Conclusion

The majority of registrants that declared motivation for donation related to the financial burden for the family were in the low income and low educational level groups. However, this motivation corresponded to a small percentage (9.8%), with most of the choices being related to the “desire to help society and science” as well as to “express gratitude for the care provided by health care professionals”. This behavior might be related to the idea of being useful after death and suggest that for most of the donors registered on the BDP, donation appears to be altruistic.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.