National Organ and Tissue Donors’ Day in Spain

IN Spain, National Organ and Tissue Donors’ Day was held on the first Wednesday in June. For more than 20 years, Spain has been a world leader for organ donation and transplants.

In 2013, Spain carried out 4,279 transplants thanks to 1,655 donors. Earlier this year, a record was broken when 45 transplants were carried out in just 24 hours.

Most of the transplants in 2013 were kidneys (2,552), followed by 1,093 liver transplants, 285 lung, 249 heart, 92 pancreas and eight intestinal. Tissue such as bone, corneas and heart valves can also be donated.

Spain has 35.12 donors per million inhabitants, well above the European average of 19 per million. The region with the highest number of donors is La Rioja, with 55.9 per million.

More than 50 per cent of donors are over the age of 60.

Becoming an organ donor in Spain is quite easy, all that is required is a donor card, which is not legally binding, but does show the holder’s wish to donate their organs when they die.

According to Spanish law, anyone deceased is a potential donor, unless they have expressed in life their wish for their organs not to be donated. Despite this, the usual procedure is to ask for written authorisation from the person’s relatives. It is not enough to present a donor card, which is why those wishing to donate are told to inform their relatives of their will so that they do not oppose. If there are any organs they do not wish to donate, they should also make this known.

The number of relatives in Spain who refuse to donate the organs of the deceased is very low. 

Organ donation is only possible if a person dies in an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital, as they are the only places with the facilities to preserve the organs and carry out the tests required to evaluate the potential donors. 

For more information, visit the site of the National Transplant Organization, www.ont.es