With almost one million new donors recorded between 2020 and 2021, there’s been a leap in the number of people agreeing to organ donation in the Netherlands, reports the NOS.
As of July 2021, the number of people who agreed to organ donation in the Netherlands showed a 4.8 million increase compared to 2020 — that’s 75% of the Dutch population 18 and older.
This remarkable increase was contradictorily faced with a surge in numbers of people who explicitly do not give permission for organ donation, with a jump from 2.3 million people to 4.3 million between 2020 to 2021.
The reports also indicate that 3.3 million Dutch people did not fill in their own choice — opting for this default choice indicates that they have ‘no objection to organ donation’, whereas 1.5 million Dutch people chose to have relatives decide on the matter.
Laws and territories
In 2020, a new donors law was passed where individuals over 18 years old will be entered on the Dutch Donor Register as having ‘no objection to organ donation’ if they don’t explicitly record their donation choice after receiving a letter and a reminder from the government. ✉
Since the new law was introduced, nearly 11 million adults officially recorded their choice. That’s 75% compared to 49% recorded answers from the previous year.
Notably, individuals between the ages of 20 and 70 gave more consent for organ donation than no consent, whereas, 40% of people between the ages of 18 and 20 did not record an explicit choice through the Dutch Donor Register as of July.
RTL Nieuws published a graph indicating that certain Dutch locations and municipalities show more willingness to donate, where Rozendaal and Oost Gelre residents made up for 46% of the donors, whereas Urk showed the least number of donors.
What do you think of the Dutch organ donors law? Tell us in the comments below!
Feature Image: benschonewille /Depositphotos
If there was an option to state explicitly who you do not want your organs to go to (alcoholics, drug users, smokers, obese, to name a few) I believe many more would be glad to donate. There is no way I’d ever allow any of my body parts to go to a smoker or former smoker, but since I can’t be assured this won’t happen unfortunately no one can use them, even deserving people. Amend the law!