Mapping French Laypeople's Views Regarding Living Organ Donation.

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

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.