As of: March 28, 2024, 12:57 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
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. But the willingness to donate is low. NRW wants to take countermeasures and is preparing a legislative initiative in the Federal Council.
Düsseldorf - In view of the low number of organ donations in Germany for years, North Rhine-Westphalia's Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) has announced his own bill for the so-called contradiction solution in the Federal Council. NRW will submit a legislative proposal to the Federal Council by June 14th at the latest in order to set the parliamentary procedure in motion, said Laumann on Thursday in Düsseldorf. With the objection solution, every person is generally 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.
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. Laumann emphasized that the question of resolving objections to organ donations was not party-political.
The contradiction solution exists in 26 European countries, said the NRW minister. “And these countries all have higher organ removal rates than we do.” Last year, according to the German Organ Transplantation Foundation, 965 people donated one or more organs after their death. At the same time, almost 8,400 people were on the waiting lists for a transplant.
Numerous initiatives to increase the willingness to donate have not changed the low numbers, said Laumann. 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. dpa