Organ donor scandal

Transplant surgeon fakes his patients’ medical tests to receive donor organs more quickly. European News Brief: Sep. 2012

A former senior transplant surgeon of the Göttingen University Clinic in Germany allegedly falsified his patients’ medical tests so that they could receive donor organs more quickly. The scandal unveiled in July 2012, and there are currently 23 such cases from 2010 and 2011 under investigation by the German authorities. They also found that a patient died as a consequence of not having received a substitute organ in time.

Unlike Austria, where everyone is considered a potential organ donor unless he or she explicitly refuses permission, German citizens have to apply for an organ donor card. Seventeen per cent of Germans are currently on the national register, though politicians are concerned that their people might become more reluctant to allow their organs to be donated as a consequence of the recent scandal.