What should happen to your organs after you die?
Keystone
It seems most members of the Swiss population would serve as organ donors, yet only half of them have actually expressed their wish to do so.
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swissinfo.ch and agencies
A representative telephone survey of 1,000 people has found that, in general, 81% are willing to donate their organs after death, the foundation SwisstransplantExternal link announced on Monday. Yet just over half of them have actually communicated that willingness.
Asked why they hadn’t done so, respondents said they either hadn’t found the time, or that they hadn’t considered it in detail. This poses a serious hurdle for transplants, notes Swisstransplant, pointing out that unclear wishes put surviving relatives and hospital staff in a difficult situation.
Swisstransplant thus encourages organ donors to carry a donation card and to inform relatives. It is also possible to display a digital donor card on a smartphone.
Some 91% of survey respondents had a positive attitude about organ donation; 55% associated the concept with terms like “save lives”, a “good thing” and “helping”. Just 2% said they were against organ donation, or said that it made them think of “organ trafficking”.
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The economics of organ donation
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For some people an organ donation is their only hope for survival. But compared with other European countries, the Swiss don’t do well. Switzerland has a donor rate of 14.2 donors per million inhabitants. Among neighbouring countries, only Germany has lower rates. Two years ago the Swiss authorities and Swisstransplant, the foundation promoting organ donation,…
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The study, initiated by the Federal Health Office and overseen by the National Committee for Organ Donation (CNDO), was designed to evaluate factors that contribute to the low donation rate. And a partnership with Facebook has demonstrated that it is possible to motivate people to order donor cards. In 2011 the Federal Health Office launched…
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The world’s first digital organ donor card was developed at the end of 2014 by Swisstransplant, the national organ donor and transplant foundation, and Jocelyn Corniche, an anaesthesiologist working at the University Hospital of Lausanne. The digital version has been integrated in the current Echo112 smartphone app that can be used to request emergency services. …
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.