EU unveils organ donation plans

Brussels has set out new proposals to increase the number of human organs available for transplant.

EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou has revealed on Wednesday plans to create common standards for organ management and to increase international organ exchanges.

There is a shortage of organs for transplant in the EU, with 40,000 patients each year waiting on a donation that may never come, the commission revealed.

Bureaucracy and not a lack of motivation seem to be at the root of the scarcity, with a Eurobarometer survey saying 81 per cent of Europeans support organ donor cards even though only 12 per cent say to have one.

Kyprianou said his office is now on "listening mode" and is set to come up with a directive by late 2008 or early 2009 for parliamentary and member states' approval, which may include an EU donor card.

Brussels has already legislated on similar health issues such as common standards for human blood, cells and tissue.

Asked by TheParliament.com if he himself had a donor card, Kyprianou said he does not.

“(But) I would definitely encourage anyone to become a donor”, he said. 

Kyprianou’s proposals came as news broke concerning a Dutch reality TV show where viewers will help a dying woman decide which of three patients should receive her kidney.

Finding the idea “shocking”, Kyprianou said he “would not say the ends justify the means”.

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