Germany considers 'opt-out' organ donor option
Germany is one of few European countries that still has an exclusively "opt-in" choice for organ donation — despite long waiting lists for organs. Now
Germany is one of few European countries that still has an exclusively "opt-in" choice for organ donation — despite long waiting lists for organs. Now the Bundestag is debating a change. About halfway through a marathon session on Thursday, Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, re-opened a debate that had last closed six years ago: Should Germany bring itself in line with many other European countries and make organ donation an "opt-out" rather than an "opt-in" choice. Germany's parliamentarians rejected the so-called "presumed consent" system in 2020, despite a push from the Health Ministry, and opted for a compromise where people would be asked when renewing their national ID cards whether they would like to become organ donors. Now, an inter-party group of parliamentarians has launched a new push to bring presumed consent in, which was debated for two hours on Thursday. The parliamentarians want every German citizen to be considered an organ donor, unless they have expressly objected to the idea. How an organ transplant transformed this woman's life To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Most parliamentarians in favor of 'opt-out' During Thursday's debate, the majority of speakers were in favor of the opt-out system.
Gitta Connemann, parliamentarian for the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said that all the measures taken to increase the number of organ donors — currently around 40% of the population — had been right, but had not been enough. "We strengthened hospitals, we supported transplantation ambassadors, we have intensified education efforts, we started campaigns, we created an online register," she said. "But there is still a gap: More than 85% of the people in this country are positive about organ donation, but only 45% have actually documented their preference." One of the voices against the law change was from Christina Baum, of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), who invoked the basic right to physical inviolability, which, she said, "goes beyond death." "From that, we can only derive maintaining the current rule: The active consent to organ donation," she told the chamber. She also suggested that changing the law would encourage international illegal organ-trafficking. How an organ donation brought me back to life, To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Germany is largely alone in Europe on the issue. France, Italy, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, and Portugal have all adopted an opt-out system of some kind.
The BriefWire