Minister for medical care Martin van Rijn has decided to postpone the preparation for a new organ donation law because it is not appropriate at this time to ask people to think about making the decision to donate their organs or not.

The new law will still take effect on July 1, the minister said but the letter which will ask all Dutch adults whether or not they wish to donate their organs after death will now not be sent until September.

That is two months later than the original date. ‘The corona crisis has a big impact on all Dutch people. I do not want to burden anyone at this time with such a momentous decision,’ Van Rijn said.

By the summer of 2021 everyone will be included in the new donor register, the minister said. The projected date for this had been March.

Controversial

The new law is based on the active choice to donate organs after death, which it is hoped will lead to more organs becoming available. The decision to become a donor can be made by filling out a form sent to everyone over 18 from the new date of September 1. This will be followed up by a reminder after six weeks and eventually by a letter stating the registration, which can be changed at any time.

People who do not respond at all will be automatically taken to consent to organ donation. This  ‘yes, unless’ system proved controversial and the law, proposed by D66 MP Pia Dijkstra in 2018, only narrowly made it through parliament.

Some 7.1 million people have presently registered their choice regarding organ donation, according to figures from April this year. Almost 3.9 million people have agreed to donate one or more organs after death while over 2.4 million people did not wish to be a donor. Some 800,000 people have said they will leave the decision to their relatives.

The corona crisis has called a halt to organ transplants, with a drop of 60% in operations, organ transplant organisation NTS said on Wednesday.