WBecause the demand for donor organs in Germany is far greater than the supply, the Bundestag made a fundamental decision a good three years ago. The MEPs rejected the introduction of the opt-out solution, which would not only have made organ removal possible if the potential donor had specified this during his lifetime. Instead, they spoke out in favor of a bundle of measures, from the introduction of a central register to the possibility for general practitioners to address their patients every two years about the topic of organ donation.
But the number of donors has continued to fall, by almost seven percent in the past year – and health politicians from the FDP and CSU have now accused Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) of political failure. The announced central organ donation register is further delayed and will probably not be available until the beginning of next year.
This is a “serious omission,” said the health policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Andrew Ullmann, of the FAZ. He rejected Lauterbach’s recent request to introduce the objection solution after all. There is currently “neither a parliamentary nor a social majority for this”. The FDP health politician Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus said that another attempt at the contradiction solution would “undermine” the Bundestag decision.
The CSU politician Stephan Pilsinger called it “irresponsible” that Lauterbach was delaying the implementation of the organ donation steps decided three years ago. The fact that Lauterbach, as an “active brakeman” on the reforms, is now again calling for a contradiction solution is a “political game at the expense of the health of the patients affected,” Pilsinger told the FAZ.
In addition to Lauterbach, the Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) is promoting the contradiction solution. He announced a Federal Council initiative on this at the end of March. According to Holetschek, the objection solution offers the chance for more organs to be donated. “Because organ donation would then be the norm and no longer the special case with express consent.” Holetschek said he welcomed Lauterbach’s initiative. He had described the law passed at the time as “failed”. But is it really? The FAZ answers the most important questions about organ donation.
Why are organ donation rates so low?
There has been a disparity in organ donation in Germany for years. Most recently, around 8,500 patients nationwide were on the waiting list for a donor organ, but last year the number of donors fell by almost seven percent to 869 people. Because each of them donated an average of three organs, a donor organ could be used in at least 2,695 patients. An organ donation is only possible in Germany if the irreversible failure of a person’s brain functions is detected – complex medical diagnostics in the intensive care unit are necessary for this, but doctors do not always initiate this.
In hospital practice, a number of patients with brain dysfunction fail to donate organs for medical reasons, for example because they have an additional illness or suffer cardiovascular arrest before the organ can be removed. Those who meet the medical requirements for organ removal remain. But in a few hundred cases, the intervention fails due to a lack of consent.