On National Donor Day, June 6, Serbia is introducing a new donor card, as part of efforts to save the lives of as many people as possible for whom organ transplantation is the only option.

The new donor card is being introduced after the Government of Serbia adopted amendments to the Law on Human Organ Transplantation. The new provisions precisely stipulate all the important issues that citizens face when deciding whether they want to be organ and tissue donors or not.

Ivana Stašević Karličić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Health in the Government of Serbia, said that the Government has adopted legal solutions that provide for the possibility for everyone to declare during their lifetime whether or not they want to donate their organs after death and, in accordance with that decision, to be registered in the Register of Donors, i.e. the Register of Persons Who Oppose Organ Donation.

‘These solutions give citizens greater legal certainty, and the health system a clearer framework for action. This is especially important in an area where public trust determines whether more people get a chance at life. We are on the right track. In 2025 and 2026, the number of people on the waiting list was reduced from 1,700 to 1,228. That number must be further reduced. Serbia’s membership in the Eurotransplant community would significantly contribute to this, but to take that step we must first meet the necessary prerequisites, above all by increasing the number of actual donors. This is the responsibility of the health system, institutions and society as a whole and the goal around which we must remain consistent’, said State Secretary Stašević Karličić and called on the members of the Serbian Parliament to support the amendments to the Law on Human Organ Transplantation.

Ten years of the ‘Most Important Call in Life’ campaign have shown that major social changes do not happen by themselves. They require trust, perseverance and partnership of the state, the health system, patients, families and companies that understand their responsibility towards the community,’ said Ronald Seeliger, CEO of Hemofarm Group.

‘As a company that has been caring about people's health for more than six decades, we believe that organ donation is a matter of responsibility and humanity. It is a decision by which a society shows how ready it is to care about the life of every person. As an individual, I deeply believe that each of us can contribute to creating a better society, and as someone who has already signed a donor card in Germany, I take the liberty of calling on others to do the same,’ said Seeliger.

National Donor Day was established as part of the campaign ‘The Most Important Call in Life’, which was jointly launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia, Hemofarm Group and Hemofarm Foundation together with patient associations, with the aim of increasing the number of donors and transplants, adopting a law regulating this area and Serbia's membership in the Eurotransplant organization.

Ten years later, the number of donors and transplants has increased, and legislation has been adopted, but Serbia is still at the bottom of the world in terms of the number of transplants performed. The most important call, the one that could end their uncertainty, is still awaited by 1,228 people.

According to the data of the Administration for Biomedicine of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia, from the beginning of the year until today, transplantation has been performed in 71 patients.