Research and Practice of Health Promotion, Volume 09: The Organ Donation Process: Causes of the Organ Shortage and Approaches to a Solution

Most people in Germany have a basically positive attitude towards organ donation and only insignificantly fewer of them are willing to donate organs themselves after their death. In contrast, only a small portion of the population possesses an organ donor card, and a major shortage of organ donations still prevails in German hospitals. Against this backdrop, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) commissioned an expert report on the organ donation process. On the basis of international studies, reasons for the organ shortage were to be determined and possible approaches to a solution developed with regard to increasing the donation rate.

The results of this study are now available as Volume 9 of the specialist booklet series "Research and Practice of Health Promotion". In this volume, the authors explain the decisive factors in the decision-making process and examine the studies available on the various aspects in an analysis of content and methods. Building on this, they develop a model of the organ donation process and give their recommendations for future strategies for increasing the organ donation rate. As a supplement and extended approach, this booklet contains in its conclusion the summary of the results of a one-day expert workshop held by the BZgA on 27 March 2001, on which occasion the expert report and the central approaches derived from it were discussed with regard to future measures.