42 percent included in Donor Register

A new Organ Donation Act will be implemented on 1 July 2020. This act stipulates that all persons aged 18 and over and registered with a Dutch municipality shall be included in the Donor Register and considered to have ‘no objection’ to organ donation unless they have actively registered their preference. At the beginning of 2019, 54 percent of the adult population had not registered such a decision.

General consent

The number of persons aged 12 years and up who record their consent for – general or specific – donation is growing each year, although in 2018 this increase was less marked than in previous years. The number of persons refusing consent has risen since 2016, from 1.56 million in 2016 to 1.90 million persons in 2018 and 1.95 million in 2019.

In 2019, over half of all registered persons (58 percent) are donors who have given either general or specific consent. Aside from them, a share of 31 percent deny consent for organ donation while another 11 percent leave the decision to surviving relatives or a designated person.
Anyone registered may amend their own record in the Donor Register at any time. In the period April 2018 to 2 January 2019, over 8 thousand people changed their preference from ‘consent’ to ‘no consent’. The majority among those who changed their preference were 50 to 69 years old. Three thousand persons have made the reverse decision and changed the record from ‘no consent’ to ‘consent’.

More women than men registered

The Donor Register includes more women than men: in 2019, 45 versus 39 procent. More women (27 percent) than men (22 percent) give general or specific consent for organ donation. Explicit denial has been recorded by 13 percent of women and 12 percent of men. This gender gap is found in all age groups except for the group aged 80 and over.

Donor registration varies across municipalities

Regional differences are seen in the share of people giving consent for - general or specific - organ donation. In 21 municipalities, over 30 percent of the population aged 12 years and over are registered as donors. The top 3 consists of Goirle (34 percent), Hilvarenbeek and Oost-Gelre (33 percent). Relatively many inhabitants in the province of Noord Brabant are registered, in addition to the municipalities of Nijmegen and Horst aan de Maas. The municipalities with the lowest shares of registered donors are Urk (9 percent), Staphorst (13 percent) and Neder-Betuwe (14 percent).
In Neder-Betuwe, 19 percent deny consent, followed by Gorinchem, Ridderkerk and Tholen with 18 percent. The lowest percentage of denials (8 percent) is found in Tubbergen, Reusel-De Mierden and Dinkelland.