FAQ

Slovenian citizen or resident (with Slovenian health insurance) aged 15 or over who is capable of judgement can make a formal decision for or against organ and tissue donation after death. There is no upper age limit. Chronic illness is not an obstacle to making a declaration.

The donor declaration can be signed in person at registration locations around Slovenia or online via the e-government portal (eUprava). For registered users of portal eUprava electronic submission is really quick, safe and easy. Once you have decided on your position, please inform your loved ones.

You can find out more about how to make a declaration in the donor register here.

Yes, you can change your decision at any time in the same way as you made a declaration (online or in person).

If the deceased person decided in favour of organ donation during his or her lifetime, the conversation with the next of kin is of an informative nature. If the deceased person has formally decided against donation, the donation procedures will not be initiated and the conversation with the next of kin will not take place.

Absolutely not. The declaration in the donor register has no influence on your medical treatment during your lifetime. Medical treatment and organ donation are completely separate processes. Furthermore, medical personnel do not have access to the information about the declaration in the donor register during the patient’s lifetime. Only after death can it be unlocked by authorised healthcare professionals (a doctor or a transplant coordinator). In accordance with medical doctrine and ethics, medical personnel endeavour to preserve the health and life of each patient by all available methods and means. Unfortunately, in some cases death is imminent.

Yes, this is an expression of your support and willingness to donate organs. The final assessment of medical suitability for donation of an individual organ or tissue is made by doctors.

Minors over the age of 15 can declare in the register that they wish to donate organs after their death.

Information about organ donation is stored securely in the donor register. The administrator of the electronic national register is Slovenia-transplant. The data is locked by definition and cannot be accessed or viewed by anyone during your lifetime, not even by your family doctor. The declaration is also not visible on your health insurance card. Only after death can the information be unlocked by authorised healthcare professionals (a doctor or a transplant coordinator).

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, if the relatives give their consent for donation, the deceased person can donate organs.

No. The cards were distributed more than twenty years ago, when the national register had not yet been set up. Please enter your will officially in the donor register. However, the card is an expression of your personal wishes and can be useful and helpful in case of conversation about organ donation with relatives.

No. Organ and tissue donation for medical purposes and body donation for research purposes are separate procedures. To donate your body, please contact the Anatomical Institute of the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana (01 543 73 02).

Foreigners living in Slovenia might have different types of permits and statuses (temporarily, permanent residence etc.). Please contact Slovenija-transplant’s office for more information about your individual case and options for declaration about post-mortem organ and tissue donation. Slovenian laws define the process of organ donation in Slovenia. Under national law, consent is a prerequisite for post-mortem organ and tissue donation.

Please note: If a foreigner dies in a Slovenian hospital and proves to be a potential organ donor, the medical staff will try to verify the deceased’s wishes, locate the persons who were close to the deceased person and ask them for their consent for donation. In case of foreigner, consent for donation must be obtained in a written form. If the will of the deceased remains unknown or no close members are available, organ or tissue donation is not permitted.

In Slovenia, you can only donate a kidney to your relatives and emotionally attached persons. Each case of living donation is reviewed by the Ethics Committee for Transplantation. The risk to the donor’s health must be proportionate to the expected benefit for the recipient. It is also crucial that there is no forced donation, financial compensation or other forms of abuse of kidney donors in the case of living donation.

Heart, kidney, liver, pancreas and lungs can be donated in Slovenia.

As far as the age of the donor is concerned, there is no age limit. Anyone can donate, from newborn babies to elderly people over 90 years of age.

No. The doctors decide which organs of the deceased are suitable for treatment with a transplant and are of sufficient quality or functional.

No. Organ donation is selfless help for a fellow human being in need, regardless of age, origin, gender, profession or other characteristics. All posthumous donation procedures are anonymous.

No. Organ donation is a voluntary and selfless human act. According to the Slovenian law, no financial or non-financial benefit for organ donation is permitted.

Yes, the organs and tissues of a deceased child can only be procured if the parents or legal representative give their consent.

No, donation is only possible if death occurs in a hospital (donor hospital).

The suitability of the organ is determined on several levels. It begins in the phase of the possible and potential donor. At that stage, the hospital’s transplant coordinator primarily evaluates if the potential donor has any concomitant diseases that could damage an individual organ or significantly impair its function. Of particular interest are the diseases that would affect the organs we use for transplantation (heart, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas).

In addition, possible or potential donors with known absolute medical contraindications to donation (cancers and infections that would seriously threaten the recipient’s life if transmitted to the recipient via the organ) are immediately excluded. Suitability assessment continues after the conversation with the next of kin, during organ maintenance and when accepting offers for the final recipient. A series of standardised laboratory tests and targeted diagnostic tests are performed to assess the function of each organ in the donor’s body. During procurement, surgeons assess the organ’s function with the naked eye, its anatomy and its external appearance. The organ must function at least as well in the recipient as in the donor.

Read more about organ donation here.

Organ donation procedures do not normally take longer than 48 hours.

Donors’ bodies are treated with respect and care. The corpse remains whole after donation. In the case of removed organs, the appearance is similar to that after an operation. Burial in an open coffin and other traditional or religious funeral rites are possible (depending on the religion of the deceased and their relatives).

Yes.

All post-mortem donation procedures are anonymous. Relatives can contact Slovenia-transplant and receive information about all procured and successfully transplanted organs and the country of the recipient.

Yes, we offer relatives psychological support from a clinical psychologist during the grieving process. They should contact Slovenia-transplant.

No. The procedures are anonymous. However, it is possible for the recipient to write an anonymised thank you letter to the donor’s relatives and send it to Slovenia-transplant. We will forward it to the donor’s relatives.

Around 120 organs are transplanted in Slovenia every year. Most of these are kidney transplants.

All organ transplants are performed at the Centre for Transplantation at UMC Ljubljana, where top experts ensure the best possible treatment, post-operative care and lifelong follow-up of patients after transplantation.

The waiting time for a transplantation varies from case to case and is determined by several factors (urgency, patients’ condition and readiness for the operation, absence of colds, suitability of the organ in terms of size, blood group…). On average, we have one of the shortest waiting times in Slovenia among the Eurotransplant countries. On average, patients wait 12 months for a kidney transplant, 8 months for a heart, 6 months for a lung transplant and about 3 months for a liver transplant. In life-threatening cases, the waiting time for heart, lung and liver transplants is significantly shorter, usually only a few days or weeks (depending on the urgency of the individual case).

No. In Slovenia, transplant treatment is covered by basic health insurance. It is only performed in the public institution UMC Ljubljana. Self-payment is not possible. The patient’s circle of acquaintances and material wealth have no influence on the accessibility and success of the treatment.

A heart, lung or liver transplant is necessary if all other treatment options have been exhausted and the patient’s state of health is so impaired that the organ will clearly fail despite treatment. Only in the event of final failure of both kidneys is there an alternative treatment with dialysis.

Watch the video material in which people with experience speak very directly and honestly about the disease that led to the failure of a particular organ, about fears, waiting, decisive phone call, operations, recovery and life after transplantation. At the Slovenian Transplant patients’ association, they are ready to answer questions and help.

For medical explanations about transplant treatment, please contact the relevant department of UMC Ljubljana.

Foreign citizens who have died in Slovenia and for whom it is not known whether they are registered as donors can only have organs removed if their next of kin or close relatives agree and consent to the removal. Without the consent of the next of kin, the donation is not allowed.

The declaration in the national register only applies if a person dies in Slovenia. If a Slovenian citizen dies abroad and all medical requirements for organ and tissue donation are met, the local medical staff will try to contact the family of the deceased or close relatives. The further procedures for donation depend on the legislation of the country in which the person died. Each country has its own laws and rules for organ donation.

Organ donation is primarily about finding the most suitable recipient for each donated organ in order to achieve the best possible treatment outcome. In Slovenia, the supervisory and coordination centre Slovenia-transplant works with Eurotransplant on a daily basis.

The allocation of organs is not arbitrary, but the protocols and criteria for each organ and each country are clearly, ethically and transparently defined. Immunogenetic criteria, medical assessments, the size of the organ, the necessity of the treatment and much more play a role. The allocation of organs takes place at the central coordination office of Eurotransplant, where there is a joint database of donors and recipients.

In Slovenia, an organ of unknown origin cannot enter into the donation system. Donations and transplants are only carried out within the public healthcare system, and all complex procedures are clearly defined and recorded. For every organ that is procured and transplanted in Slovenia, Slovenia-transplant guarantees its origin and assures full traceability.

As of 2022, Slovenia has a law ratifying the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking in human organs.

Specialists in intensive care units. The procedures are not linked to treatment.

All of the donor’s organs and tissues are removed by a specialised team of doctors. The organ removal takes place in the operating theatre. The medical team treats the donor with respect and in a way that preserves his or her dignity. Once the doctors have removed the medically suitable organs for donation, the surgical incision is sutured closed. After the removal, the body of the deceased is washed and cared for in accordance with all the laws of respect for the human body. After the procedure, the body is taken to the pathology department.

Organ trafficking is a criminal offence and a serious violation of human rights. There is no organ trafficking in Slovenia. Neither the police nor independent organisations (non-governmental organisations) have registered or uncovered cases of abuse.

As of 2022, Slovenia has a law ratifying the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking in human organs. Slovenia-transplant strongly condemns any abuse in this area. We are actively committed to the prevention of offences on an international level, critically examining ethical dilemmas and respecting the conventions in this field.

In Slovenia, the average age of donors is around 55 years. In the last 20 years, the average age of donors has risen by 10 years.

Around 10 patients die every year in Slovenia. This figure is the lowest within Eurotransplant, where a total of around 1,300 patients die each year because they do not receive a suitable organ in time. These figures show that there is an absolute shortage of donors in all Eurotransplant member states.

The logistical processes are managed by the central transplant coordinator. Properly stored organs are transported in a special, thermally insulated carrier bag or in boxes, regardless of whether the transport takes place in Slovenia or across the national border. The transport of organs across the national border is strictly protected and documented. There are several possible ways:

• our medical team goes to a foreign centre for organ removal and brings the organ back to Slovenia;
• a foreign team comes to Slovenia for the removal and takes the organ with them when they leave the country;
• the organ can travel to or from Slovenia unaccompanied.

Each procured organ or tissue is registered, as is the patient who received the organ/tissue. Any transport of organs outside Slovenia (with or without medical escort) is registered with the administration of the Ministry of the Interior. All printed documents are carefully stored in the Slovenija-transplant archives.

The oldest organ donor was registered in the United States of America. He was 95 years old. This is a very extreme case. In Slovenia, the so-called quality of the organs and their potential to function well in another human organism is taken into account when assessing suitability for donation.

For more than 40 years, ideas and research have been developed in the field of transplanting animal organs into humans for medical purposes. We can speak of the medicine of the future, which brings with it many ethical, social, medical and legal questions that are constantly arising. One of the greatest dangers of this type of transplantation is the transmission of infections from animals to humans, the so-called zoonoses. Even in a completely isolated environment, scientists have not yet succeeded in creating completely safe conditions for the actual long-term success of such a transplant. Another challenge is the rejection reaction of the recipient, which is all the more serious as two different types of living organisms are involved. But a major ethical challenge also remains, as xenotransplantation involves the deliberate breeding of a species of living being simply to serve as a source of organs for human transplantation therapy. All in all, there are currently more reasons against than in favour of this method of obtaining organs for transplantation therapy.

Throughout his history, man has never been able to come to terms with his fate and his powerlessness when it comes to his end. He has always been dissatisfied with his own mortality and the fragility of life. Therefore, many explanations and ideas about death (including life after death) were born to reassure people.

But never in history has death been pushed out of life as much as it is today. Most people die in hospitals and other institutions. Today’s Western society is dominated by ideas about human productivity, happiness, eternal youth and vitality. At the same time, illness, old age and death are strongly tabooed. Modern man behaves as if death does not belong to him. The fact is, death remains part of the human natural cycle and no one can escape it.

Not yet. For several decades, research projects have been carried out simultaneously at different levels (biotechnologies, 3D printing, human cells or biomaterials) to explore and develop the possibilities of devices that could replace the function of human organs (e.g. a universal device that would replace the function of a kidney). During development, new ethical and complex issues arise that need to be resolved. Research in Europe is more restricted and must adhere to demanding research protocols, so sensational discoveries often come from Chinese or (independent) American laboratories. It is already possible to temporarily, i.e. for a short time, replace the function of a failing heart with an artificial mechanical heart. Kidney function can be replaced by dialysis, but in both cases these are not real artificial organs or organoids.

Unfortunately, no. There are great inequalities in access to treatment around the world. In countries without a public health system, without laws on transplantation and without a regulated and ethical organ donation system, this type of treatment is not available. Slovenia is one of the most advanced and successful countries in the world in the field of organ donation and transplantation.

Spain, for many years now. The country has a very good and efficient organ donation system and a high level of support in society. Organ donation is also accepted as an integral part of end-of-life care, which is worth emulating.