Mapping Organ Exchange: Transnational Cooperation in Transplantation and Organ Donation in Europe

Abstract

Despite the tendency to harmonise many policy areas in Europe transnationally, the respective health systems of the member countries have remained predominantly nationally regulated and focused. The article illustrates the current state of transnational cooperation for the specific case of organ donation and transplantation medicine in Europe, a field in which cooperation was essential and has been established since the end of the 1960s in many forms. Yet, no homogeneous regime of European responsibilities emerged from this experience with cooperation. Instead, we find a patchwork of different ways to regulate organ donation and transplantation and to cooperate with other countries. Based on extensive empirical research in more than 30 European countries, the article elaborates an overview and a typology of the prevalent forms of cooperation and discusses the obstacles for a further harmonisation in this field.