Organmangel und Organverteilung

Each year, approximately 1,000 patients die in Germany although they could have been saved by an organ transplantation. In view of these dramatic figures, Mathis Bader studies the two most pressing questions from the perspective of constitutional law and legal policy: the lack of organs and the allocation of organs. The author begins by examining the strategies used to deal with the lack of organs and then advocates a change in the current German regulation pertaining to the removal of organs, which stipulates the prior consent by the donor or consent by the relatives, to the opt-out solution, which means consent by default if not declared otherwise. After giving a comprehensive, critical description of the German organ allocation system from an historical, medical and legal perspective as well as depicting its basis in constitutional law, he explores applicable and feasible allocation criteria, and in doing so includes international discussions of medical ethics.