A new paper by Simon F. Haeder, a health policy research at Texas A&M University School of Public Health, offers some fascinating clues. Conceptually, it dives into the murky perceptions out there about organ transplantation. Yet every eight minutes, another person in the United States is added to the waiting list for an organ. Whether based in reality or assumption, understanding these perceptions is essential to addressing the persistent organ shortage crisis.
Make no mistake, time is of the essence. Each day, 17 people die while awaiting a transplant. Haeder also recently published a great study in the Social Science Quarterly. Research has shown that characteristics such as race and the purpose for which one needs a transplant can influence public perceptions about deservingness. Conducted between March 18 and April 18, 2022, the poll surveyed 4,177 American citizens age 18 and older.
Participants were presented with four different scenarios, each featuring an individual with a different set of life circumstances. The characters featured Ronny Nielsen, a white man born with a genetic condition that led to kidney failure; DeShawn Washington, a Black coal miner who now needs a lung transplant from black lung disease; Luis Hernandez, a Hispanic man with advanced COVID-19, unvaccinated, at an age when he would need a lung transplant; and Yang Chen, an Asian man with AUD in need of a liver transplant. Description of Outcome Measure Respondents ranked their agreement or disagreement with each character receiving a transplant along a five-point Likert scale.
The resulting insights unveiled significant disparities in attitudes driven by the political ideology of respondents and their racial resentment. People who identified as liberals or demonstrated low levels of racial resentment tended to favor Yang Chen’s case over Luis Hernandez’s case by very little, if at all. They judged the two scenarios equally harshly. Conservatives and people with higher racial resentments showed significant variability in their ratings of these men.
Yet Haeder’s research shows there haven’t been many studies on who deserves to get an organ transplant. It especially addresses the ways in which race tends to compound other life conditions. Past studies have been too narrowly focused on fewer organs and behaviors. This newest study answers some key questions. These discoveries have already created new approaches that help solve the organ shortage crisis and increase the overall number of available organs for transplant.