Rational Debates instead of Splits: Steinmeier and Budenbender appeal
Büdenbender told "Bunten": "We never argued so much that we couldn't be together anymore - something like that I wouldn't be able to endure, no one in our family could endure that." But they behaved towards each other like in other families.
In the debate about the reform of the rules for organ donation, Steinmeier spoke out for the so-called objection solution. "I am of the opinion that we should open ourselves up to the objection solution," he said. It provides that every person is considered a donor by default unless they have expressed objection in their lifetime.
Steinmeier said, "It's a contradiction if we reject the objection solution in our own country and yet happily accept organs from other countries." The Federal President himself donated a kidney to his wife in 2010.
In response to the question whether she could feel the foreign kidney, Büdenbender told "Bunten": "He is a part of me." However, Bunten's concern for her husband has now grown a little larger, since he now only has one kidney.
Ms. Buedenbender shared that she and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, during a debate on organ donation reform, never had such intense arguments that they couldn't reconcile, opposing Steinmeier's stance on the issue. Steinmeier, supporting the 'objection solution,' argued that it would be illogical to reject it in Germany while accepting organs from other countries, given his personal experience as a donor. Every Budenbender, reflecting on her husband's kidney donation, acknowledged that the transplanted organ had become an integral part of her.
