One in four people people are unwilling to donate organs and the number of people who would refuse to do so, even if this was made compulsory, has almost doubled to 26% of the population this year compared to three years ago.

This is the conclusion of a new report by research institute Nivel, reports today’s Volkskrant. Researcher Friele told the paper that the results are ‘shocking’. ‘The number of donors had already fallen to 200 last year from 228 in 2004 and this trend is continuing while the need for organs is rising significantly because more people are becoming diabetic,’ said Friele.
According to the Volkskrant 1,400 people are on donor waiting lists; most of them (1,088) need a kidney. The waiting time for a new kidney is four years, 18 months longer than when the current organ donation legislation was introduced in 1998.
The Kidney Foundation has called on health minister Ab Klink to come up with an action plan to tackle the problem. The foundation told the Volkskrant that all options must be open to consideration, from compulsory donor registration to a fiscal incentive.
Another option was to put people who refuse to register as a donor at the bottom of the waiting list should they themselves ever need an organ, the organisation said.