Hollywood story lines hinder cooperation.

• Position: Organ Donation - Brief article

The television and motion picture industries are scaring people away from donating organs, according to Susan Morgan, an associate professor of communication at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. "Fictitious story lines that focus on a black market for organs or doctors who murder patients for their organs are taking their toll," she maintains.

Morgan advises that emotional and gripping story lines in television shows about organ donation often lead to public misconceptions. Programs have featured tales about murderers stealing organs to sell on the black market, doctors declaring death prematurely to save a friends' life, corruption in the medical system to procure organs for wealthy or famous individuals, and treating people who are organ donors only as sources for spare parts. Morgan claims the shows rarely emphasize that decisions regarding organ transplants are made on the basis of a number of criteria that are entered into a national computer system, which, instead of just one doctor, determines who receives transplants. Tissue typing and finding matches are highly-regulated...