Overview
- A cross-party bloc in the Bundestag presented the draft on Thursday to make post-mortem donation the default for adults unless they register an objection, with a planned start on January 1st, 2030.
- Sponsors Sabine Dittmar, Gitta Connemann, Armin Grau, Peter Aumer and Julia-Christina Stange seek a first debate before the summer and promise a broad information campaign that includes mailings to all 18-year-olds.
- The proposal keeps brain-death confirmation as a hard requirement, maintains parental consent for minors, and would restrict families from vetoing donation if the deceased left no recorded objection.
- An opposing cross-party group led by Stephan Pilsinger, Michael Brand, Lars Castellucci, Ates Gürpinar and Kirsten Kappert-Gonther calls the plan a rights violation, labels it a false fix, and urges better hospital workflows and easier use of the national register instead.
- Germany recorded 985 deceased donors in 2025 while more than 8,000 patients wait for organs, and medical experts and patient advocates warn that opt-out rules alone will not raise transplants without structural improvements.