The Frankfurters are cautious | Frankfurt
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fromJulia Lorenz
shut down
City will inform citizens in future in ID card points – new law
Frankfurt – For a year, after registering or re-registering their place of residence at the Citizens’ Registration Office, Frankfurt citizens were given organ donation cards and information brochures without being asked. It was a test balloon. However, the balance sheet is sobering. This emerges from a municipal report that was recently submitted to the city council.
“When registering or re-registering in the Citizens’ Registration Office, citizens are usually difficult to respond to organ donation,” the report says. The topic does not match the actual occasion of the visit to the citizens’ office. It goes on to say: “Some information is rejected, simply left lying around or disposed of before leaving the citizens’ office.” How many organ donation cards and information materials were actually received and taken with them was not recorded statistically. The ID cards and brochures will continue to be issued in spite of everything.
9000 people
waiting for an organ
The number of organ donors in Germany is not large. People are insecure and are afraid that their organs will be removed even though they are not really dead yet. Ten years ago there was also a scandal over manipulated waiting lists for organ transplants. But a transplant can save lives – whether from the heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, pancreas or intestines. According to the German Organ Transplantation Foundation (DSO) based in Frankfurt, more than 9,000 people in Germany are waiting for a donor organ. Statistically speaking, three of them die every day because they did not get a suitable organ in time.
After a low in 2017 with 2594 organs transplanted from 797 donors, the number has risen again across Germany, according to the DSO. In 2018, 3,113 organs were donated by 955 people – an increase of a good 20 percent. In 2020, 2,941 organs were transplanted from 913 people. Similar numbers are expected for 2021.
The federal government has long been looking for ways to get more life-saving organ donations. That is why the Bundestag passed an organ donation reform in January 2020. Although transplants only remain with his express consent during his lifetime, there should be more incentives in the future. Among other things, the law stipulates that everyone over the age of 16 who applies for an identity card, extends it or procures a passport, receives organ donation cards and information material from the federal and state identity card offices, i.e. the citizens’ offices. In the future, general practitioners should also give their patients open-ended advice every two years about organ and tissue donation.
Digital register
End of 2022 in sight
In addition, a digital organ donation register is to be set up, in which one can register directly at the citizens’ office or later at home. The corresponding “law to strengthen the willingness to make decisions on organ donation” comes into force on March 1st. The online register will probably not be available until the end of the year.
In Frankfurt, the then municipal authorities had already decided in 2019 to sell organ donation cards and information brochures in the eleven citizens’ offices in order to encourage more people to declare themselves as potential organ donors after death. The attempt, which started in mid-October 2019, was based on a request by the parliamentary group “The parliamentary group”. To justify the test, the magistrate wrote in a report at the time that. Therefore, one sees oneself in the obligation to contribute to support an informed decision of the citizens on the subject of organ donation.
In future, organ donation cards will also be handed out in Frankfurt when applying for an identity card or passport and no longer when registering and changing residence. Nonetheless, the magistrate expects an increased amount of work for the employees in the citizens’ office. The magistrate’s report states: “The responsibilities are particularly expanded to include entries in the organ donation register as a challenge.” Julia Lorenz