Germany considers 'opt-out' organ donor option
Key takeaways
- Germany is one of few European countries that still has an exclusively "opt-in" choice for organ donation — despite long waiting lists for organs.
- Now, an inter-party group of parliamentarians has launched a new push to bring presumed consent in, which was debated for two hours on Thursday.
- How an organ transplant transformed this woman's lifeTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Germany is one of few European countries that still has an exclusively "opt-in" choice for organ donation — despite long waiting lists for organs. Now, parliament is debating a change.
https://p.dw.com/p/5G4X1More than 8,200 people in Germany are currently hoping for a life-saving donor organ Image: Autentic Advertisement About halfway through a marathon session on Thursday, Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, re-opened a debate that had last closed six years ago: Should Germany bring itself in line with many other European countries and make organ donation an "opt-out" rather than an "opt-in" choice.
Germany's parliamentarians rejected the so-called "presumed consent" system in 2020, despite a push from the Health Ministry, and opted for a compromise where people would be asked when renewing their national ID cards whether they would like to become organ donors.