Mapping trust relationships in organ donation and transplantation: a conceptual model

The organ donation and transplantation (ODT) system heavily relies on the willingness of individuals to donate their organs. While it is widely believed that public trust plays a crucial role in shaping donation rates, the empirical support for this assumption remains limited. In order to bridge this knowledge gap, this article takes a foundational approach by elucidating the concept of trust within the context of ODT. By examining the stakeholders involved, identifying influential factors, and mapping the intricate trust relationships among trustors, trustees, and objects of trust, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of trust dynamics in ODT. We employ maps and graphs to illustrate the functioning of these trust relationships, enabling a visual representation of the complex interactions within the ODT system. Through this conceptual groundwork, we pave the way for future empirical research to investigate the link between trust and organ donation rates, informed by a clarified understanding of trust in ODT. This study can also provide valuable insights to inform interventions and policies aimed at enhancing organ donation rates.

[Feminist public health, another view on the pandemic.]

Theorists of the ethics and politics of care, with their feminist and intersectional analyses, have spent decades trying to leave their mark on clinical practice and political structures . In them, extensive processes of humanization of the relationship between professionals and people who need their care are required, without neglecting inequalities due to gender, social class or belonging to vulnerable minority groups that go through health and disease experiences in the community. society. It is evident that our institutions must be extensively rethought in their foundations; from nursing homes to highly technological ICUs; from the saturation of primary care to the lack of specialized personnel. In areas such as nursing, great emphasis is placed on models based on interdependence and the particular context to generate another care framework , while fighting for hierarchies and invisibilities related to highly feminized professions . Not surprisingly, the reflections that follow are signed by three women with hybrid profiles who have dedicated part of our working life to the field of primary and hospital care (both in nursing and in physiotherapy) and, in turn, to research and teaching in bioethics, philosophy and humanities. We have experienced in our flesh the contradictions between a will to serve and some axes of oppression connatural to the institutions.