According to Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio, DR, Minister of Health Sophie Løhde wants all Danes to be organ donors by default:
From the viewpoint of the prime minister’s cabinet, we are open to a discussion of the entire issue [of organ donations]. We are therefore also open to continuing with informed consent, per current law, and open to a soft version of active deselection [from organ donations].
The soft version of deselection, DR explains, would make all Danes organ donors by default, but allow family members to reject donations unless a person has actively stated his or her will in either direction.
Ms. Løhde expressed her firm support for the soft deselection model, a position she has held since she in 2016 explained that “the time is ripe” for Denmark to consider “implied consent” for organ donations.
The debate over organ donations is lively in Denmark. On the side supporting some version of implied consent, Mr. Mads Sebbelov, a father who lost his daughter to heart failure, explains:
I am fighting this fight, so other parents won’t have to experience saying farewell to their child on a waiting list for a new organ.
Mr. Sebbelov has led a campaign for a ‘citizen’s initiative’ on organ donations to be brought to the Danish parliament. Last summer, his initiative collected the required 50,000 valid signatures and was brought up for a parliamentary debate. The initiative that follows from the minister of health is a corollary to that debate.
On the opposing side of implied consent, professor Trine Kjær with the Danish Center for Health Economics is skeptical of the actual outcomes of legal reform:
What is so interesting is that there is not much to suggest that [implied consent] leads to a higher rate of donations. If we look at the donation rates internationally, there are no real differences between countries that have consent by default, and those that have active consent.
According to the DR, 20 EU member states have passed implied-consent laws for organ donations.
