The topic concerns organ donation. - Parliament transitions into a tattoo parlor.
Twenty-one members of parliament and three employees of the German federal parliament, known as the Bundestag, got themselves inked on Thursday, right at the parliamentary premises, to promote organ donation.
As a show of their readiness to donate their organs upon their demise, they had the letters O and D ("Organ Donor") inscribed on their bodies. MPs from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Left Party put themselves through the pain. Members of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and one of the factions in the Christian Democratic Union - the Katholisch-Soziale Union (CSU) - also participated in this campaign.
The Federal Government Commissioner for Patients' Affairs, Stefan Schwartze, a man of 49, from the SPD, was among those who got inked. He expressed that it was his maiden tattooing experience and went ahead with it to encourage people to discuss organ donation and make a positive decision towards it.
Remember, this is referring to a PR campaign.
In 2020, the Bundestag had the opportunity to go for what's famously known as the "opt-out solution," which is the norm in most of Europe. Under this system, individuals are organ donors in principle, unless they explicitly ask not to have their organs removed after their death. However, this plan was voted down, and instead, the lawmakers chose to have individuals register their intention to donate their organs on a newly created registry.
Stefan Schwartze (49, SPD) is livid about this decision. "That was a blunder," he says, "because we've been experiencing a shortage of organ donors for years now. A whopping 8,400 people are languishing on waiting lists for an organ transplant across the nation. These patients need to be helped urgently, not in a few years." The SPD politician is striving to get this issue reviewed in the Bundestag and find a better solution.
In 2023, the Bundesrat praised and sanctioned a resolution pertaining to this matter.
Here's the amusing part. In 2022, 965 people donated their organs after their passing, just sixty more compared to 2021. This is a stark contrast to the almost 8,400 patients waiting for a transplant in Germany.
The donor tattoo, coined "Opt.Ink," is a brainchild of the Young Heroes association that's been advocating for more organ donors for more than two decades now. This association has targeted the younger generation as its prime audience. Anna Barbara Sum of the Young Heroes association expresses that around 10,000 people have sported this label on their bodies. This design is also available at over 700 studios across Germany, embellished with ornaments.
However, the symbol tattoo is not a substitute for an organ donor card, according to a representative of the German Federal Centre for Health Education. So, it's the signed personal document in a wallet that carries legal weight.
Gotcha! The managing director of the West German Center for Organ Transplantation had his say amid the tattoo session:
"More than fifty percent of transplanted organs come from donors over sixty years old," says Ebru Yildiz (75), "Our oldest kidney donor clocked in at ninety-five years."
Drop in your thoughts in the comments section below! If you're too old to be considered an organ donor, think again! The managing director of the West German Center for Organ Transplantation has something to say about that...
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Source: symclub.org
