Germany Electronic consent
Declaration of intent for organ donation is now possible in the new online portal
Published on March 18, 2024 | Reading time: 2 minutes
Federal Health Minister Lauterbach presents organ donation register
Starting today, everyone can register their decision for or against organ donation online. You can see the press conference with Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach on the introduction of the organ donation register here.
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Internationally, Germany is far behind when it comes to organ donations. Transplants save human lives. Citizens can now electronically express their consent or rejection of organ removal on a new federal online portal. Thousands are already taking advantage of the offer.
Willingness to donate an organ or tissue after death can now also be declared electronically. At the start of the register in Berlin on Monday, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) appealed to the population to make use of the new option. The online register is a milestone for the digitalization of the healthcare system and an important prerequisite for increasing the number of organ donations, said Lauterbach.
The register will gradually replace organ donor cards, said Lauterbach. On a specially set up website, citizens can indicate whether and to what extent they agree to organ donation – or not. An ID card with online authorization is required.
According to the President of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, Karl Broich, around 9 a.m. on Monday morning, three hours after the portal was activated, 5,500 organ donors had already registered electronically. According to Broich, from July onwards the removal hospitals should be able to access the declarations on organ donation.
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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
The structure of the register is based on a change in the law in 2020. The goal is more organ donations. According to figures from the German Organ Transplantation Foundation, 965 people donated one or more organs after their death last year. A total of 2,877 organs were transplanted. Although the number increased compared to 2022, Germany is far behind in an international comparison.