Organ donation register: 150,000 entries in the online portal after five months

Five months after the launch of the online register for organ donations, almost 150,000 people have registered. As of August 21, there were 147,822 declarations, according to the Federal Ministry of Health, as reported by the "Rheinische Post". The register has been online since March 18; after one month, there were initially just under 98,000 entries. More than 90 percent of these were for organ donation, as a spokesperson for the Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices told heise online.

E-ID card, health ID and co.

In the organ donation portal, people from the age of 16 can enter online whether they are willing to donate organs or not. However, information on tissue donation must still be documented in analog form. The connection of officially approved tissue facilities to the organ donor register is not planned until January 2025.

Identification for the organ donation portal is possible with the ID card app and the eID function of the electronic ID card or with the electronic residence permit. It is also possible to enter declarations directly via a health insurance company app.

With the AOK "Mein Leben" app, this can be done by identifying yourself with your electronic health card 2.1 or your ID card, if you have not already done so. The health ID is then required to log in to the app. An entry can then be made under the menu item "Organ and tissue donation".

An e-mail address and the health insurance number must be entered. The entry is voluntary, free of charge and can be changed or deleted at any time. Declarations on paper, such as organ donor cards, are still possible.

Criticism from the Patient Protection Foundation

According to dpa, there has not yet been a turnaround in the number of organ donations, but the register has only been in operation for a short time. The Patient Protection Foundation believes that registration is complicated, which explains the low number of entries in the online register. The foundation also criticized to dpa that a legal obligation of the federal states to set up terminals in the offices for this purpose is to be removed. There is therefore a risk that an important interface will be carelessly discarded.

The online register is at the heart of a law passed by the Bundestag in 2020 to make it easier to declare a willingness to donate. According to dpa, a draft bill recently initiated by the cabinet provides for the deletion of a provision contained therein at the request of the federal states, according to which digital register entries should also be possible in identity card and passport authorities.

The background to this is the efforts to increase organ donations. Last year, 965 people donated one or more organs after their death. That was 96 more than in the previous year, according to the coordinating German Organ Transplant Foundation. At the same time, however, almost 8,400 people were on the waiting list for a transplant. A Federal Council initiative for new organ donor regulations is currently in the works – Members of parliament have long been calling for an objection solution, whereby all citizens are automatically donors if they do not object.

(mack)