Organ donation: How you provide clarity

Organ donation – talk about it,
Make a decision and record it in writing

Donate organs after death? Put your decision down in writing and share it with your relatives. This creates clarity and ensures that your will is implemented. Deal with the topic of organ donation and make a decision. Put it down in writing on your donation card and/or patient decree and share it with your relatives.

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  What is organ donation?

  With organ donation, the organ donor provides the recipient with human organs for transplantation. Donating organs, tissues or cells can save lives and can drastically improve the recipients' quality of life.
  
  Which organs, tissues and cells can be donated?
  The heart, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas (or its islet cells), the small intestine, the cornea, bones and cartilage, heart valves, blood vessels and skin can be donated. At present, blood stem cells are only obtained from living donors.
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  How can I record my decision?

  There are many ways to record your decision about organ donation. For children and adolescents who have not yet reached the age of 16, it is the parents, respectively the legal guardians, who make the decision about organ donation. Every person who has reached the age of 16 can decide for him- or herself.
  
  Patient decree
  In the free patient decree from DeinAdieu, you can record which medical measures you agree and disagree with for the event that you are no longer able to decide yourself due to an accident or an illness. You can also record your decision regarding organ donation in your patient decree. Deposit your patient decree with a confidant, such as your lawyer, or deposit it with your commune. Share your decision with your relatives so that for the event that you are incapable of judgement, they are not burdened with making the decision for you. Important: If you decide to donate your organs, but your relatives would be against it, the Swiss Federal Act on the Transplantation of Organs, Tissues and Cells stipulates that the will of the deceased person takes precedence over the will of the relatives. Therefore, from a legal point of view organs can be removed. In Switzerland, however, for ethical and moral reasons, the practice has prevailed that if relatives refuse a donation, no organs are removed. This is precisely why it is all the more important to discuss your decision with your loved ones - that way you can ensure that your will is enforced even after your death (further information on patient decree).
  
  Organ donor card
  You can record your decision regarding organ donation in your donor card and carry it with you or keep it somewhere known to your relatives. You can agree to a donation in general or in a differentiated manner, reject an organ donation in general, or delegate the decision to a confidant. The information in the donation card is not registered, which is why it is safest to put down your decision in a patient decree and to talk to your relatives about organ donation.
  
  National organ donor register Switzerland
  The National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, Swisstransplant, is responsible, in its capacity as National Allocation Office, for the allocation of organs to recipients and is in charge of the corresponding waiting list. You can register at www.swisstransplant.org and record your decision about organ donation using a form.
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  Why talk about organ donation?

  Writing down your decision is an important step. Share it with your family and friends, because in the absence of a donor card, the next of kin are asked if they are aware of their relative’s wishes. If they are not, they have to make the decision, taking into account your presumed wishes. The process is much easier and faster if they already know your real wishes. In addition, your relatives will not be burdened further in a situation of great pain.