Keystone
The organ donation vote gave many Swiss people an opportunity to state their will. More than ever before have requested a donor card.
On May 15, Switzerland decided on a paradigm shift: Anyone who does not explicitly state that they do not want to donate their organs should be considered a potential organ donor. However, the change in the law will probably not come into force for another two years.
However, the vote appears to have been a wake-up call for many to engage with the issue. “The rush was great,” says Stephanie Balliana, media spokeswoman for Swisstransplant, the Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation. Within the first three days after the vote, 4,500 organ donation cards had been ordered and sent by Swisstransplant – a record number.
Increase already during the election campaign
Especially since the ID cards can be obtained not only from Swisstransplant, but also from other channels such as the website of the Federal Office of Public Health, pharmacies or general practitioners. In addition to a yes or no to organ donation, the card can also indicate a close person who should make the decision in the event of death.
The Federal Office of Public Health cannot give any exact figures when asked, but writes on request that “a large number of cards” were requested during the voting phase and after the referendum.
Swisstransplant has also experienced an increase in orders since Easter in mid-April. There have been 20,000 since January. The figures are difficult to compare with previous years, as many people have used the Swisstransplant online register for their entry in the last three years, more than 130,000 people. This had to go offline at the beginning of the year due to gaps in data protection law.
The register has been usable again since mid-January, but with severe restrictions. New entries are not possible. Existing entries cannot be changed, only deleted. However, according to Swisstransplant, only a few have made use of this option: 750 entries have been deleted since January, out of a total of over 10,000 entries.
Balliana from Swisstransplant believes that the organ donor card has been of particular importance since the registry went down.
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It is still uncertain whether the register will go online again before the federal register is available in two years. The board of trustees wants to make a decision based on a report by the Federal Data Protection Agency, which is not yet available, says Balliana.
However, the people not only wanted to keep their will, but also wanted to find out more about the topic. While at normal times around 2,000 visitors per day romp around on the website of the organ donation foundation, on May 15 there were around 20,000 people at peak times.
However, the run subsided again in a similar period to the rush for organ donation cards: From May 18, the numbers were back to normal.