Organ donation: This means the consent solution

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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On January 16, 2020, the Bundestag passed the “Bill to Strengthen Decision-Making Regarding Organ Donation”. The draft, also known for short as consent or decision-making solution, aims to create better conditions for citizens in the future to deal with the issue of organ donation and to make an informed decision.

Building on current practice

Basically, the draft continues to rely on the existing practice of extended decision-making. Thereafter, a donor must have actively expressed his willingness to donate organs. This can be documented in the organ donation card or the relatives can provide information about the donor's wishes.

Catalog of measures to support decision-making

The initiators want to increase the number of active decisions for or against organ donation through the following measures.

Online register

A central online register is planned at the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information, in which citizens can document their personal decision to donate organs. This decision can be changed at any time.

Consultation of the opinion with the identification authority

At the registration offices, citizens should be made aware of the possibility of an entry in the online register when they apply for an identity card or a passport. It should then be possible to submit the declaration directly on site at the appropriate terminals.

Regular information from general practitioners

Family doctors should actively advise their patients every two years on the subject of organ and tissue donation and encourage them to be entered in the online register. The advice should be open-ended and include that the entry in the register is not mandatory. The doctors should be rewarded accordingly for the consulting effort. The Federal Center for Health Education is also to provide medical practices with suitable educational documents.

Objection regulation is rejected

The authors reject the objection regulation on organ donation, according to which anyone who does not object is a potential organ donor. They write: "In all measures to increase organ donation after death, this must be maintained as a conscious and voluntary decision that must not be enforced by the state." Self-determination about one's own body is a central element of human dignity.

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