The purpose of this study was to assess attitudes of blacks toward organ donation. One hundred fifty surveys were randomly disseminated to people in the District of Columbia, New York and Chicago; 111 were returned. No information is given as to how people were selected for inclusion or as to the representativeness of this sample.

Only 27% of both men and women were willing to donate an organ (27% of men and 33% of women were unwilling, the rest were uncertain). The pattern was similar when respondents were asked about willingness to donate a family member's organ. The authors noted that the fact that the majority of respondents to this survey were undecided “further attests to the scarcity of knowledge about organ donation in black communities.”

When asked how an available organ should be used, 74.1% of respondents had a strong preference that it should go to whomever needs it; 14.1% said it should only go to members of a particular ethnic, racial, religious, or other group; 10.6% said it should go to family; and 1.2% said it should go to children.