On 22 April, the Parliament adopted an own-initiative report on the Commission's proposals for EU action on organ donation. It welcomed the intitiative, which aims to improve cooperation between member states on the issue and make recommendations on the way forward.
MEPs particularly stressed that organ donation must stay strictly non-commercial and asked the Commission and Europol to better combat organ trafficking as well as transplant tourism. According to the non-binding report, "any commercial exploitation of organs is unethical and inconsistent with the most basic human values" and organ donation out of financial motivation "degrades the gift of an organ to a mere commodity which constitutes a violation of human dignity".
MEPs voted in favour of the Commisison proposal to introduce a European donor card to complement existing national systems. Indeed, a recent Eurobarometer survey on Europeans' views on organ donation showed that eight out of ten Europeans favour organ donor cards.
They also underlined the importance of increasing public awareness of organ donation and transplantation in order to facilitate the identification of organ donors and increase organ availability. To do so, the House "calls on the Commission, member states and civil society to enhance structurally the promotion of organ donation, inter alia among youngsters in schools" and "suggests using well known personalities (for example sportsmen and sportswomen) and educational packs" to do this.
