With 75 per cent of Maltese respondents saying they are willing to donate their organs after death, Malta ranked second, after Sweden, in a Eurobarometer study carried out on organ donation.

Overall, around 56 per cent of Europeans said they were ready to donate one of their organs.

The country with the highest rate of participants who said they were ready to donate their organs was Sweden, with 81 per cent. Malta came next with 75 per cent of respondents replying in favour, followed by Finland and Belgium (73 per cent).

The study showed that the citizens who were most reluctant to donate their organs come mainly from Eastern European countries. Latvia (29 per cent), Austria (33 per cent) and the Czech Republic (44 per cent) had the lowest number of respondents who said they would sign up for organ donation.

Similarly, within the EU, at least 54 per cent said they would donate an organ from a deceased family member if requested by the hospital.

Malta once again came second with 71 per cent of respondents agreeing, after Sweden (74 per cent), when asked if they would donate an organ from a deceased family member if requested by the hospital.

The Netherlands came third with 66 per cent, followed by Belgium with 65 per cent of respondents saying they would accept to donate an organ from a deceased family member if asked by the hospital.

The study noted that, in this case, Malta was the only country, from the centre and north of Europe, with a high number of respondents.

However, only 39 per cent of Italian respondents, 38 per cent of Latvian respondents and 35 per cent of Austrian respondents said that they would agree to donating an organ from a deceased relative at the hospital’s request.

However, while an overwhelming percentage of Europeans – 81 per cent – said that they were in favour of organ donation cards, only 12 per cent actually owned one.

The study found that only one per cent of citizens in the new member states owned an organ donation card, while 12 per cent of EU15 said they owned one.

Malta and Sweden both had the highest number of respondents with 95 per cent saying that they supported the use of organ donation cards. Finland came third with 92 per cent, followed by Denmark with 89 per cent of respondents supporting organ donation cards.

However, only 15 per cent of Maltese respondents said they actually owned an organ donation card, as opposed to The Netherlands, which had the highest number of respondents (44 per cent) who owned an organ donation card.

Swedish citizens came in second place (30 per cent) followed by Irish (29 per cent) and British (26 per cent) citizens.

Organ donation cards are practically non-existent in the new member states Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, with only one per cent owning an organ donor card.

In fact, the study noted that the higher the respondent’s level of education and socio-professional level, the more he or she has a positive view of organ donation.

However, the study stated that discussing organ donation with family members had an extremely positive impact on the results.