Organ donation: Increasingly fewer Germans want to donate organs

Last year, 769 people in Germany donated organs – as little as ever. Aid organizations deplore the dramatic situation of many patients.

Organ donation: Increasingly fewer Germans want to donate organs

According to a report, number of donors in Germany has once again fallen dramatically. After 2016 already had a historical low, number of donors in year 2017 fell by just under eight percent to only 769, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports with reference to still unpublished annual report of Stiftung Eurotransplant.

Thus, number of donors to which organs were actually taken was 9.3 per million inhabitants and thus under critical mark of 10 per million inhabitants. It is internationally regarded as a precondition for a serious Organspendesystem. The number of transplanted organs of brain donors fell to only 2,664. Last year it was still 2,927. The number of donations also decreased from 659 in year 2016 to 620 in year 2017.

World's highest willingness to donate in Spain

With new Niedrigststand of 9.3 donors per million inhabitants, Germany is definitively one of European countries with lowest volume of brain organ donors. Only Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania have even fewer donors. Belgium, as well as Croatia, has more than 30 per million inhabitants, Spain is long-standing world leader and has reported for 2017 even 46.9 donors per million inhabitants.

According to sourn newspaper, patients in Germany benefit from higher willingness to donate abroad. For Hearts, livers and kidneys 2017 as well as in previous years via Eurotransplant Verbund to German clinics. Around 200 additional organs from Belgium, Nerlands, Croatia, Hungary, Austria and Slovenia reached Germany in this way.

"Politics leaves people alone"

Next Monday, German Foundation Organ Transplantation (DSO) will also officially present its statistics and had already announced that it would expect a minus of more than 1,500 organs compared to 2010. At present, more than 10,000 patients would wait for a life-saving transplant – The situation is "deeply worrying", said medical Board of DSO, Axel Rahmel. From year to year, fewer patients can be helped with transplantation.

The German foundation for Patient Protection complained to Süddeutsche Zeitung of a lack of interest on part of government Parties in transplantation medicine. "This drama does not occur in exploratory talks for a new edition of Grand coalition with no word," criticized Foundation board member Eugen Brysch. The parties left people on waiting list for an organ alone. Brysch demanded that shortage of donors be made a topic in coalition negotiations.

Date Of Update: 14 January 2018, 12:02
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