Biggest obstacles to gaining organ donors are misconceptions, Hong Kong health department finds

Study cites concerns over physical appearance and family’s reactions

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The city faces a chronic severe shortage of organ donors. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 2:47pm, 20 Nov 2015Updated: 10:51am, 26 Sep 2017

Traditional beliefs and other misconceptions on organ donation procedures are reasons behind shrinking numbers of people in the city registering to be organ donors, according to a health department study released today.

Only around 20,000 people signed up on the government’s centralised organ donation registry last year, down from 24,000 the previous year for new registrations. The list now contains 179,000 names - only around 2 per cent of the city’s population.

Most people who opt out of the donation program said they wanted a “dignified” funeral, to be buried as a full corpse, or were worried that a decision to donate organs would be opposed by an elder family member.

READ MORE: A matter of life and death and donors: The dilemmas facing solutions to Hong Kong’s low organ donation rate

The department study found some also worried their appearance might be affected after the donation, or that doctors would not try hard enough to save their lives if they were a registered donor.

“Traditional belief is not a thing we can change in a short time, “ said Dr Anne Fung of the Department of Health as she released the department’s study on Friday.

“By education and promotion, hopefully we can improve the registration rate.”

This is the first study conducted by the department to try to gauge understanding of public sentiments on organ donations.