Overview
- A cross-party bill backed by 254 members of the Bundestag and a Bundesrat draft seek to introduce a Widerspruchsregelung that would make adults default organ donors unless they register a specific objection.
- Parliament discussed the measures on Thursday, September 24, 2026, and referred competing proposals to the Health Committee for detailed review and next steps.
- A separate group of 58 MPs opposes the opt-out model and instead wants stronger outreach, mandatory prompts to decide after turning 18, and easier ways to record consent or refusal in the central register.
- Leaders of university hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia, including Uniklinik Köln, publicly support an opt-out law but say legal change alone is not enough and call for better donor identification, more staff and clearer public information.
- Context for the debate includes 2025 figures showing 985 deceased donors, about 3,020 post-mortem organs transplanted and roughly 8,199 people on waiting lists, plus the central register launched in March 2024 with about 633,000 entries where 82 percent record consent and 8.7 percent record dissent.