Current political aspects of transplantation medicine in Germany: Organ donation in contradiction?

Abstract

Despite the claimed high organ donation willingness in Germany, the real numbers for organ donation are far below the international average. About 8000 patients in Germany are waiting for atransplant kidney, of which only afraction, after years of waiting, can be treated with asuitable transplant. Further changes to the transplantation law to improve organ donation in Germany were recently adopted. However, it remains the demand for areorganization of organ donation towards the opting out solution. The political decision on this is at the time of delivery of the article.