As of: March 18, 2024, 10:45 a.m
By: Andreas Schmid
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It is questionable whether the new organ donor register will lead to more donations.
Karl Lauterbach therefore wants to go further and recycle an old design.
There is support from the CDU.
Organ donation should be made easier.
From Monday, March 18th, you can deposit your declaration of your willingness to donate digitally.
On the portal www.organspende-register.de you can decide for or against organ donation.
Consent to organ donation is possible from the age of 16, and you can object as early as 14.
Experts emphasize how important it is to make a decision at all - whether for or against organ donation.
“In practice, the lack of knowledge about the decision to be willing to donate organs is a burden for relatives,” says Felix Braun, senior physician and transplant officer at the Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital.
“The number of organ donations in Germany is too low”
Entry in the register is voluntary, free of charge and can be changed at any time, according to the Federal Ministry of Health.
While organ donor cards can be lost or not found, the online register is available at any time.
The new register is intended to increase the number of organ donations.
There has recently been an increase in organ donations in Germany.
Compared to the EU, fewer organs are donated per capita in only four countries.
“The need for action is as urgent as it is obvious,” says the SPD’s health policy spokeswoman, Heike Baehrens, to
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
“The number of organ donations in Germany is too low.
People are still waiting far too long for a life-saving donor organ.”
According to the Federal Center for Health Education, 8,496 people in Germany are currently waiting for a new organ.
Around 6,500 of them need a new kidney, almost 900 a new liver, almost 700 a new heart.
She is “very happy that the online register is now launching,” says Baehrens.
The register is the right way to increase the willingness of potential organ donors to make decisions.
More organ donations through a new register?
Experts are skeptical
But will this actually register more donors?
The German Society for Surgery (DGCH) does not expect any significant improvement.
“Just because something can now be entered into a register does not automatically mean that more people are willing to donate organs,” says DGCH General Secretary Thomas Schmitz-Rixen.
The health policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU, Tino Sorge, is correspondingly skeptical.
“Medical specialist groups like the DGCH are unfortunately rightly dampening expectations,” says Sorge to
IPPEN.MEDIA.
“Experts do not expect the situation to improve significantly.” Why is that?
“For many critics, the path from the decision to entry in the register is too long and too bureaucratic,” says Sorge.
“Above all, it would be much more important to motivate people to think about the topic of organ donation in the first place.”
The organ donation register starts on February 18th.
© IMAGO/Karina Hessland/Steinach (montage)
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The central register is the core of a reform that the Bundestag passed in 2020.
At that time, the CDU governed with the SPD and Jens Spahn was Health Minister.
Spahn actually planned an even further reform.
He advocated that citizens who do not want to donate must put their objection on record in order not to become organ donors - the so-called double objection solution.
At that time, Spahn submitted a joint application with today's Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.
However, there was no majority for this in the Bundestag.
Tino Sorge voted for Lauterbach and Spahn's proposal at the time - and still sees it that way today.
“I personally still support the double contradiction solution,” says Sorge.
“In our networked and well-informed society, every citizen should be able to think about the topic of organ donation at least once in their life.
However, the respectful debate of the last few years has shown that there are also many well-founded arguments in favor of the decision solution.” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach took a similar position last year and called for “a new attempt to vote on the contradictory solution”.
If there is a new vote, Sorge can imagine a different result than in 2020.
“The majority ratio of possible group applications could certainly look different today.” This is also due to the experiences from the Corona period.
“Many politicians now think differently about responsibility towards their fellow human beings – especially when they are vulnerable or in need of help.
Dissent resolution may have a greater chance these days.”
The SPD politician Lars Castellucci made similar comments in the
Frankfurter Rundschau
at the beginning of the year .
“It cannot continue like this,” he said, given the low number of organ donations.
This is the “unanimous mood” among members of other parliamentary groups as well.