Fewer Restrictions Increase Transplantation Rates

The current debate surrounding organ transplants in Germany focuses on expanding the organ donor pool for living donations. Currently, kidney donations are only allowed from people who have a close relationship with the patient. The problem: If the donors’ kidney is not compatible, no donation can be made. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach plans to change this and allow kidney donations from people who are not closely related. Gian Caspari, an economist in the “Market Design” Unit at ZEW Mannheim, explains:

“Such a change in legislation sounds promising as it opens doors to cross-over transplantations. With this approach, two incompatible patient-donor pairs can exchange their kidneys, ensuring each patient receives a compatible donor kidney from the other pair. This concept has already proven successful in other countries and could lead to a significant increase in transplantation rates in Germany as well.

Another proven approach in organ donation is altruistic donor chains. These chains occur when a person is willing to donate a kidney without having a specific recipient in mind. The kidney donation initiates a chain of transplants where each kidney benefits a patient whose donor, in turn, donates a kidney to another person, and so on. While altruistic donations are not permitted under current legislation either, they would increase the number of organs available for transplantation.

However, ethical considerations related to organ donation must be carefully taken into account to ensure the rights and dignity of both donors and recipients are respected. Despite these challenges, approaches such as cross-over transplantation and altruistic donor chains offer promising opportunities to combat the problem of organ donation shortages, providing life-saving treatment to many additional patients.”