In Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, there is reference to an interesting study about organ donation, which reveals how donation rates in different countries change depending on legislative approaches.
Organ donation systems are mainly divided into two types:
Presumed consent (opt-out system): In this system, people are automatically considered donors after death, unless they have expressed their disagreement. Here, the checkbox is selected by default.
Explicit consent (opt-in system): In this system, people must actively express their agreement to become donors by activating the checkbox.
Statistical data:
According to a study published in 2003: In Austria, the consent rate for donation was close to 100%, and in Sweden — 86%.
In Germany, this figure was around 12%, and in Denmark — only 4%.
This difference is not conditioned by culture or belief, but by the structure of the bureaucratic choice. People often prefer to keep the option that is already selected (default option), which in psychology is known as status quo bias.
And in Armenia:
In Armenia, the culture of organ donation is still undeveloped. According to 2019 data, only kidney transplants from living donors are carried out in the country. The cadaveric donation system is still absent, whereas development in this field could save many lives. But this is already another topic.
Further analysis I leave to you…
