Finding a solution, even across party lines: A cross-party group of members of the Bundestag is now making a new attempt to introduce an opt-out regulation for organ donation.
In order to address the ongoing shortage of donor organs, in the future every person should potentially be considered as an organ donor after their death – unless they have expressly objected to this during their lifetime: MPs from the SPD, CDU, CSU, Greens, FDP and Left Party presented such a model in Berlin on Monday. In 2020, a similar initiative in the Bundestag failed.
SPD health politician Sabine Dittmar pointed out that more than 8,000 sick people are on the waiting list for an organ donation – they often wait for years, many in vain. “Three people die on the waiting list every day,” said Dittmar. The number of transplants has stagnated for many years “at a low level.” A legally anchored opt-out rule would increase the number of donor organs – and could save many lives.
According to the current legal situation, only those who have explicitly consented to being organ donors during their lifetime can be organ donors. The Bundestag voted in favor of this so-called decision-making solution in 2020, but the more far-reaching opt-out solution did not find a majority at the time. However, the law passed as a result should provide incentives to increase the number of voluntary donors – for example by making it easier to access the organ donation register and by educating citizens when they visit the residents’ registration office.
However, these measures have not brought the desired success, said CDU MP Gitta Connemann when presenting the new model: “We see that these measures are not having the desired effect.”
Therefore, all those who do not want to donate organs must be required to “actively document their objection.” “This is a decision that can be expected of a responsible adult.”
Connemann pointed out the large discrepancy between the general willingness to donate organs and the number of organ donations actually carried out: “This is so despairing because we know from surveys that 84 percent of people in this country are positive about organ donation, but only a good 40 percent document this decision.”
The initiators of the proposal say they now want to initiate a legislative process in the Bundestag, which will ideally lead to a law being passed in spring 2025.
In a first step, all citizens aged 18 or over should be written to by the Federal Center for Health Education and informed about the new regulation. The change from the decision-making solution to the objection regulation should then take place in 2027 or 2028.