Background and purpose: Social ethics, altruism, and religious beliefs are the most effective factors in human behavior and can play a fundamental role in promoting the culture of organ donation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of social ethics and altruism in attitudes towards organ donation with mediation of religiousness.
    Materials and methods: This descriptive, correlational study was based on the structural model, which was performed on 323 medical
students of Azad and state universities in Maraghe and Bonab in 2015. The participants were chosen through multi-stage cluster sampling. Data was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire on students’ attitudes toward social ethics, Carlo et al. altruism scale, Tihana et al. organ donation attitude questionnaire, and religious beliefs’ scale of Nielsen. The suggested model was assessed by performing structural equation modeling using AMOS, version 22. Bootstrapping was used to test mediation path in the suggested model.
      Results: The direct effect of social ethics (0.55), altruism (0.37), religion beliefs (0.02) on students’ attitudes towards organ donation was significant (P<0.01). The indirect effect of social ethics (0.016) and altruism (0.03) with mediation of religiousness was significant, as well. On the whole, 78% of the variance in attitudes towards organ donation in students was determined by the proposed variables of this model.
      Conclusion: Variables of social ethics, altruism, and religious beliefs affect students’ attitudes towards organ donation. Thus, it seems that promotion of social ethics, altruism, and religious beliefs leads to the increased tendency of students towards organ donation.