The Federal Institute of Public Health (Bundesinstitut für Öffentliche Gesundheit - BIÖG) provides an organ donation form which is available in many doctor’s practices and pharmacies and can also be downloaded via the BIÖG’s website. It is also possible to document one’s willingness to donate all organs or particular organs without using a specific form. Underage persons can also fill in an organ donor card. Pursuant to § 2 of the German Transplantation Act, federal authorities as well as health insurance funds shall make organ and tissue donor cards available and provide adequate information material. Another objective is to create a standardised European organ donor card. Some countries with an opt-out system (so-called "dissent solution") are maintaining "organ donor opt-out registries" of persons who have explicitly decided against posthumous organ donation.

The filled-out German organ donor card is valid in other countries as well. The Federal Institute of Public Health (BIÖG) warns that travellers outside Germany could become organ donors against their will, for the procedures for handling a potential donor are not regulated by the legislation in the country of origin, but the legislation in the country the traveller is staying in. The BIÖG has published a translated version of the organ donor card in all 24 official languages of the European Union and in Arabic, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, Russian and Turkish so that the personal choice stated in the card is duly considered in foreign countries. The filled-out organ donor card should be added to the personal identification papers before any journey abroad.