Survey results released here Tuesday by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) showed that 51 percent of Hong Kong residents are willing to donate their bodies after death.

In order to understand the public opinion on body donation, Institute of Medical and Health Sciences Education, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of the HKU has conducted a phone survey in August, 2014. A total of 638 adult Hong Kong residents completed the interviews.

Among all the subjects, 84 percent had heard of body donation, and 51 percent of those who have heard of body donation said they were willing to donate their bodies after death.

"This survey has demonstrated that body donation is widely known by the Hong Kong society, and people in Hong Kong are altruistic," said chief investigator of the study, Chan Lap-ki, who is an associate professor of Medical and Health Sciences Education and Department of Anatomy.

Chan noted that the result is very encouraging. "Although death and human body dissection are still taboos in Asian culture, we can still see that many Hong Kong people are willing to donate body in order to help medical education and research, and they also want to contribute to the world even after death," he said.

The survey also found some factors correlated with one's willingness on body donation, including younger age, single marital status, not having dependents, dissection experience and willingness to donate organs.