Medical Students' Views on Cadaver and Organ Donation.

Background: Organ and cadaver donation are 2 important issues that contribute to the future of medicine. Organ donation is a miraculous gift and enables the donor to continue to "live" in others. Cadavers are usually part of medical students' first encounters with clinical work and play a very important role in medical education. The attitudes of medical students toward both organ and cadaver donation were evaluated in the current study.

Methods: Sixteen phrases about cadaver and organ donation were presented to the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-year students of the Kafkas University Faculty of Medicine. The answers were compared between male and female students using the χ test.

Results: There was a significant difference between the answers of the male and female students only to the first item (P = .043). Very important data were also obtained from the answers given to the other items in the study. Although many students, both male and female, agreed with the item "I would donate my organs," the rate of agreement with "I would donate my body as a cadaver" was low for both sexes.

Conclusions: The results obtained from the study regarding organ and cadaver donation awareness are significant. It is extremely important to deal with the reluctance regarding this matter, starting from the medical students, to inform society in the appropriate manner.