Second Law Amendment to the Transplantation Law – Amelioration of Cooperation and Structure of Organ Donation

In April 2019, the Second Law Amendment to the Transplantion Law – Amelioration of Cooperation and Structure of Organ Donation (GZSO) was passed by the German federal parliament. Thus, the parliament takes measures against the decline in organ donations which is caused not by a lack of willingness of possible donators, but by structural problems according to experts. The following aspects shall be implemented by the amendment

  • Exemption of transplantation comissioners depending on the number of intensive care beds in the hospital where the organs will be removed. Additionally, the access rights shall be reinforced, i. e. access to the intensive care unit, sifting information concerning the evaluation of donor potential, presence when patients come into question as potential donors after medical consideration
  • „blanket compensation of services […] of organ removal“ for the concerned hospitals and supplements for the utilization of the clinical infrastructure
  • Introduction of a quality control system throughout the hospital that “allows for the regional authorities to evaluate whether and in how far the particular hospitals equipped for organ removal implement the existing possibilities of organ donation”
  • Establishment of a neurosurgical and neurological on-call duty to facilitate communication with the consulting physician, thus to ensure a comprehensive communication system in case of a brain death diagnosis
  • Anonymous letters between organ receivers and the closest relatives shall be put under legal supervision

Deutscher Bundestag (2019): Second Law Amendment to the Transplantation Law – Amelioration of Cooperation and Structure of Organ Donation. Drucksache 19/6915. Online Version (German)

Deutsches Ärzteblatt (2019): Bundestag passes organ donation law. Online Version (German)

Information of the Federal Centre of Health Education (BZgA) on the GZSO Online Version (German)

Wird geladen