Organ donation readiness should be queried

Letters from the health insurances to inquire about organ donation readiness

04/03/2012

Organ donation in Germany is far from sufficient to provide all the needy with a donor organ. In fact, according to the experts, far more people would be willing to donate organs, but there is no written explanation that would allow organ harvesting after death.

Therefore, the federal government has decided to regularly query the willingness to donate organs of all Germans. All citizens will receive in the future a cover letter in which they „Yes“ or „No“ to check their attitude to a possible organ removal. However, there is no compulsion to comment. If you do not want to make a decision today, you can simply leave the letter unanswered. With the help of the query, the Federal Government hopes to significantly increase organ donation readiness as soon as possible in order to counteract the existing deficiency.

Cover letter should readiness for organ donation
There has been consensus in politics for a long time that a regular inquiry into organ donation readiness should take place. Now, the policy makers of all parties have agreed on a joint motion to change the law, according to which the statutory and private health insurance all the adult members should ask in writing about their organ donation readiness. Presumably in summer, a law will be passed on the basis of the group application. From then on, every German has to deal with the topic, which according to the hopes of the politicians could already lead to a significant increase in the willingness to donate. The insufficient number of organ donations should be increased significantly with the new law in the short term, according to the statement from the ranks of the policy. In the cover letter is promoted for an organ donation and the insured can with „Yes“ declare their readiness for organ harvesting after their death or these with „No“ reject. It should also be possible to express willingness to donate to specific organs without allowing for general organ removal. Furthermore, certain organs can also be expressly excluded. Confirmation of organ donation readiness will be recorded in writing on an organ donor card as before. Anyone who is undecided or does not want to reply to the cover letter for other reasons can simply ignore this. A compulsion to the opinion is not provided.

Increase in organ donation readiness
After the parliamentarians have agreed on a common approach, the first steps should now be implemented as soon as possible. By mid-2013, therefore, the first cover letter could be sent out. From mid-2015, an appropriate letter will be sent every two years. Thus, the previous procedure for explaining organ donation readiness has come to an end. This was essentially based on the initiative of individuals willing to remove their organs after death. Although everyone was able to document his appointment in an organ donor card, this card was issued exclusively on his own request. As a result, many who were actually willing to make a donation have nowhere recorded their organ donation readiness. Surveys have shown that almost 70 percent of Germans have no objection to organ harvesting after their death, but only 20 percent have an organ donor card. With the regular cover letter from the insured, the politicians now hope to close this gap and significantly increase the number of organ donations. This had last suffered a significant slump in 2011 (minus 7.4 percent), after in 2010 - also due to the media attention by the kidney donation of Frank Walter Steinmeier (SPD parliamentary group chairman) for his wife - the record to date the organ donation was achieved. According to the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation, the number of donors last year was around 1,200.

12,000 patients are waiting for a donor organ
According to current plans, organ donation readiness should not only be stored in an organ donor card but also on the electronic health card, according to the planning of the policy. In order to keep the procedure as simple as possible, the insured should also be given the opportunity to document at the appropriate terminals, for example, at the doctor's own initiative organ donation readiness. When answering the letter, this would be covered by the health insurance. How important the organ donation for the potential recipients are, the Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP) expressed in the current debate again. „Every organ donor is a lifesaver“, emphasized Bahr with reference to the approximately 12,000 patients who are currently still on the waiting list for a donor organ. The spokeswoman of the Green parliamentary group for care policy said her party was special „It is important that the discussion is also carried out in the families by mail.“ The spokespersons of the CDU (Jens Spahn) and SPD (Carola Reimann) were confident that the law would increase the willingness to donate organically, not least because people were much more likely to be confronted with the issue of organ donation.

Change of transplantation law
Even more decisive influence on the willingness to donate organs as the current decisions, however, should have the change of the so-called transplantation law, which only has to pass the Bundestag. At the same time, readiness in hospitals and hospitals to support organ donations should be sustainably increased. In the past, far too few clinics had contacted the responsible coordination center in case of emergency, also because there are too few incentives for hospitals to participate in organ donation, as was the case with the criticism of the German Ethics Council years ago. (Fp)

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