Cash registers should query organ donation readiness

Health insurance companies should query organ donation readiness

26.09.2011

Although the number of organ donations according to the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation (DSO) has reached its previous record in this country in the past year, still far too few organs are donated to supply all the needy. Therefore, the Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP) has now pleaded in the context of the forthcoming revision of the Transplantation Act, to check the donor readiness in the population by the statutory health insurance.

According to the proposal of the Federal Minister of Health, the statutory health insurance funds should inform the legally insured in connection with the issue of the new electronic health card about the possibilities of organ donation and demand a declaration on the readiness for organ donation. The Federal Ministry of Health confirmed corresponding media reports, according to which a query of organ donation readiness for the statutory health insurance funds should be mandatory in the future. Behind this is the assumption that many people in principle would be willing to donate organs, but have not documented this willingness so far, so that after the death of those affected often no organ transplantation can be done.

According to the DSO, in 2011 as many patients with a transplant could be helped as never before and this despite the fact that most Germans still do not have an organ donor card today. Nevertheless, about 3,000 of the approximately 12,000 patients who depend on organ donation die each year. According to the Federal Minister of Health, many Germans are willing to donate organs after their death, but have not completed a donor card or documented their will elsewhere. Thus, the family members, who may have been informed about the will of the deceased, have considerable difficulty in demonstrating readiness for organ donation in the hospital. In order to obtain a binding statement from as many people as possible, the Federal Minister of Health has therefore proposed the amendment to the Transplantation Act, according to which the statutory health insurance funds should query the organ donation readiness of their insured and document it in an organ donor card. In this case, the insured can agree to an organ removal after their death, reject it or reserve the decision for a later date. Thus, at least every legally insured would already deal with the subject of organ donation during his lifetime. According to the Federal Minister of Health, the health insurance funds should also be required to provide qualified contact persons for the questions of the insured on organ donation in order to provide the insured with the required background information.

German Foundation for Organ Transplantation coordinates organ donation
The Federal Medical Association has pleaded in the run-up to the planned amendment of the Transplantation Act for an obligation to explain all German citizens on organ donation readiness, but was moved away from this demand, after legal doubts occurred, according to which such a duty of explanation would be incompatible with the Basic Law. The current proposal of the Federal Minister of Health is now a new approach to reach as many Germans as possible. The promotion of an increased willingness to donate organs is supported by the leaders of the CDU and SPD parliamentary group, Volker Kauder and Frank-Walter Steinmeier. For the organization of all steps of the organ donation process, including the transport of the organs to the recipients, the DSO is responsible in Germany as a nationwide coordinating body. Almost 70 coordinators of the DSO are working for this purpose. They also support the staff in the hospitals at the end of the organ donation. In principle, every person aged 16 or over in Germany is entitled to independent consent to an organ donation. Based on the current state of research relatively many organs of the human body can be transplanted, whereby between organs, which can be won only by a donation of death and organs of living donors is to be distinguished. For example, the donated organ donation collected by the DSO includes donations of the pancreas, blood vessels, skin, heart, heart valves, cornea of ​​the eyes, bone tissue or cartilage. (Fp)

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Picture: Günther Richter