Abstract
Objective. To measure the awareness regarding the concepts of brain death and organ donation among secondary school students within the age range of 12-18 years in the southern region of Saudi Arabia.
Method. In the southern region of Saudi Arabia, 10 secondary schools were randomly chosen to participate in this study for which all the tree levels of secondary schools were visited and a written questionnaire was distributed to a randomly selected student from all 3 levels. The questionnaire was filled and completed anonymously and then analyzed.
Results. Among the 649 students surveyed, 47.22% were aware of brain death and 53.78% did not know anything about organ donation. Further, among those who had heard about these terms, 60% had received the information from informal sources like their friends or through casual web surfing; only a few had received the information from formal sources like television and the radio. The students' understanding of concepts regarding the nature of death and the causes of brain death was, as expected, inadequate and inappropriate. The Islamic perspective on brain death and the knowledge about the Sharia ruling on organ donation was also poor. Regarding the students' knowledge about organ donation, 21.57% of the students knew that organs can be donated from a brain-dead person. 24.6% knew that only living persons can donate organs, while the rest (53.78%) were not aware about organ donation at all.
Conclusion. The knowledge of and attitude toward brain death and organ donation are very poor among the young Saudi population, and have not evolved over a period of time. The information regarding the religious fatwas has not been transmitted to the level of the educational institutions.