JERUSALEM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Health Minister Yael German is pushing for a new measure under which Israeli citizens would become potential donors by default after their deaths, the Ha'aretz daily reported on Monday.
The initiative is aimed at addressing the increasing need of organs for transplantation.
Dvora Szerer, spokesperson for the National Transplant Center, told Xinhua that the minister and the Center are working on a new plan to increase the number of posthumous organ donations.
Under the new plan, the names of Israeli citizens who renew their driver's licenses would be automatically added to the organ donor database, unless they sign a form stating otherwise.
In addition, the minister and the National Transplant Center want to amend the Israeli Organ Transplant Law from 2008, so that doctors could harvest organs posthumously without having to ask the family of the deceased to sign a consent form. The consent of the family would be presumed unless the family signs a form stating otherwise, Szerer said.
Ha'aretz reported that German hopes to decrease the number of refusal for organ donations through this opt-out system, which already exists in countries such as France, Sweden, Spain and Belgium.
The 2012 annual report of the National Transplant Center, published in February, showed that Israel ranked rather behind in families' refusal rates, with 55 percent of the families refusing consent for donation in 2011, compared to 22 percent in Norway, 16 percent in Spain and 10 percent in Poland.
In 2012, a new regulation by Israel's Ministry of Health increased the number of people who signed an organ donor card by 13 percent by giving them preference in receiving transplant.
However, higher life expectancy and poor health are increasing the number of patients on the waiting list for organ donations by about 7 percent per year, the Center's data show.
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