A surgeon in Germany who carried out dozens of liver transplantations at Göttingen University Hospital is under criminal investigation for allegedly altering data relating to at least 25 patients to make them seem sicker than they were to move them ahead of other patients on waiting lists for donated organs.

The alleged manipulation of patient data, first reported on 20 July by the Munich daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung,1 is being described as the biggest organ transplant scandal in Germany.

It is seen as a disaster just as a new law to help increase organ donation has taken effect. The law requires health insurers to regularly ask all customers whether they want to donate their organs for transplantation if they die.

Bernhard Banas, general secretary of the German Transplantation Society, told …