Travel season is upon us, and thanks to Greece, travelling to Europe has become cheaper for most foreign tourists again. When you travel here, there are lots of things to be considered; maybe I’ll do a mini-series on this, not sure yet.
Anyhow, the Federal German Ministry of Health Education alerts travellers to the fact that organ donation regulations are not the same in all European countries and travellers are subject to the regulations of the country they are staying in. For instance in Germany, organs may only be removed if you’ve got an organ donor card on you or your family consents to donating your organs whereas in other European countries law has it that your consent is assumed if you haven’t got any paperwork indicating your objection. Only a few countries in which consent is assumed require your next kin’s consent to harvesting organs from your body.
To make things easier for travellers, the Federal German Ministry of Health Education offers free .pdf-forms in various European languages in which you can express full consent, limited consent or complete objection to organ donation after your passing. Here’s the English language version. Click here for more languages, the links to the forms are on the bottom of the page.
