As of: March 28, 2024, 7:55 p.m
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Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) speaks at a press conference on the current situation of organ donation in North Rhine-Westphalia. © Oliver Berg/dpa
Organ donations are urgently sought. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, 1,800 people are waiting for a new organ. But the willingness to donate is low. NRW wants to take social and political countermeasures.
Düsseldorf - North Rhine-Westphalia wants to increase the population's willingness to donate organs with a nationwide awareness campaign and a legislative initiative in the Federal Council. In view of the low number of organ donations in Germany for years, North Rhine-Westphalia Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) announced his own draft law on the so-called contradiction solution in the Federal Council on Thursday. In principle, every person is considered an organ donor after death, unless they objected to this during their lifetime. Currently, only those who actively agree to a donation are eligible to become organ donors.
At the same time, the “#NRWEntscheidetSich” initiative was launched, which aims to encourage more people to consider the issue of organ donation and make a choice. Laumann and the West German Center for Organ Transplantation said 1,800 people were waiting for a donor organ in North Rhine-Westphalia alone. But only 166 organs were donated in 2023. There are around 8,400 people nationwide on the waiting list for a transplant. Only 965 people donated one or more organs after their death last year.
Criticism of Laumann
The German Foundation for Patient Protection accused Laumann of not sufficiently supporting existing options. The contradiction solution may increase the number of potential organ donors. But the number of actual donors depends on completely different factors. “Instead of interfering with fundamental rights, Karl-Josef Laumann must finally step on the gas, especially when it comes to organizing the organ donation system,” explained board member Eugen Brysch. The implementation of the law passed four years ago to strengthen the willingness to make decisions regarding organ donation is simply not getting off the ground. “Laumann does nothing to ensure that the citizens’ offices in North Rhine-Westphalia can fulfill their obligation to provide information,” criticized Brysch.
NRW initiates legislative initiative
NRW will submit a legislative proposal to the Federal Council by June 14th at the latest in order to initiate the parliamentary procedure for resolving the objection, said Laumann. In a motion for a resolution in December, the federal states called on the federal government to draft a bill to ensure that the contradiction solution was included in the Transplantation Act. A first attempt in the Bundestag failed in 2020.
Laumann sees opportunities for the law to be adopted in the now differently composed Bundestag. NRW will also send the draft to all other health ministers in the federal states and ask them to become co-applicants in the state chamber. The bill should be in the Bundestag by autumn at the latest. The contradiction solution exists in 26 European countries, said the NRW minister. “And these countries all have higher organ removal rates than we do.”
Numerous initiatives to increase willingness to donate have not changed the low numbers. According to surveys, around two thirds of the German population are positive about organ donation. “But I just think you can’t avoid making a decision.” Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) also recently called for a new attempt at an objection solution.
Campaign on social networks
The “#NRWEntscheidetSich” campaign is also intended to promote the decision to donate organs in society. The campaign will be targeted across many digital channels such as Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). Companies, associations and initiatives from all over North Rhine-Westphalia can become partners. The initiative is the expansion of the pilot project “#RuhrEntscheidetSich”.
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“It’s not about conversion and it’s not about pressure or coercion,” said Professor Jochen A. Werner, CEO of the University Medical Center Essen. “It’s about encouraging and enabling people to think about the issue of organ donation in an informed manner and to make their truly personal decision.”
Werner said that it was difficult for him to bear the serious consequences of the lack of organs. The Essen University Medical Center has top doctors, an excellent infrastructure and the most modern equipment for transplants. “And in the end we can’t do it because there’s a lack of organs, and then you see the consequences.”
The current situation is leading to “grueling desperation among people who are urgently dependent on organs that are on waiting lists, often for years and often unfortunately in vain,” said Werner. It is particularly shocking when parents have to watch helplessly as their children remain without any hope of recovery because the organs they need are not available.
According to Werner, Essen has the largest transplant center in North Rhine-Westphalia, which, along with five others in Germany, can transplant all organs. In Essen last year, 183 patients received donor organs, but 54 seriously ill patients died while waiting for a donation.
Education also for young people
A project to raise awareness about organ donation is also starting at secondary schools in the Rhineland this summer, said Sabine Deutscher, board member of AOK Rheinland/Hamburg. Minister Laumann advocated providing information about organ donations in driving schools and the mandatory first aid course.
Ebru Yildiz, head of the West German Center for Organ Transplantation, said the decision to donate organs is a personal but also social responsibility that everyone should make for themselves during their lifetime. By documenting the decision, relatives are also relieved of the burden of having to make this difficult decision after a death.
The decision for or against organ donation can now also be recorded digitally. In mid-March, a new online register went into operation in which people from the age of 16 can enter their decision - clinics should also be able to access it there in an emergency. The entry can be changed or revoked at any time. According to Laumann's information, more than 70,000 people have registered in the register so far. Of these, around five percent would have refused organ donation. You can also access the online register from the NRW awareness campaign website. dpa