WeCollect - platform for direct democracy
According to the current legal situation, organ donations are only permitted if the deceased person gave their consent during their lifetime. If no expression of will is known, the next of kin can agree to a removal.
The popular initiative “Promote organ donation - save lives” aimed to reverse this principle. Organs may only be removed if there is an objection. This gave the impetus for the Federal Council and Parliament to come up with a counter-proposal. Here, too, every person who does not want to donate organs after death must explicitly state this in the future.
In contrast to the initiative, the next of kin can object to the donation, provided that this corresponds to the presumed will of the deceased person. This introduced a weakened form of contradiction resolution. In contrast to the popular initiative, this happens without the population being able to comment on it.
The revision of the Transplantation Act concerns a personal right. It is a health and ethical concern that should be discussed widely. This public debate on principle is only conducted in a referendum.
The present law also puts relatives in a difficult situation in which they have to decide whether they are willing to donate or not, unless they have clearly expressed their will. This puts people under additional pressure in an emotional situation.
WeCollect supported the collection of signatures for the initiative “Promote organ donation - save lives”, so that the voting population can express their opinion on organ donation at the urn. Since the initiative was withdrawn in favor of an indirect counter-proposal and there is therefore no referendum, we also support the referendum in this specific case.
