Bible 'does not prohibit organ
donation, transplantation'
Should Christians support organ donations and transplantation?
By ROLAND CHIA
SINCE medical doctors
Joseph Murray and David Hume performed the first successful living-related
kidney transplant from identical twins in 1954, the science of
organ transplantation has advanced by leaps and bounds. About
50 years later, there have been successful heart, pancreas, pancreas
islet cell, intestine, lung, liver and heart-lung transplants.
This medical technology has helped thousands of individuals.
Should Christians support this ever-growing practice, and should
they be organ donors?
The Bible does not deal directly with the issue of organ donation
since it is alien to the biblical world. The task of the Christian
thinker, then, is to see if what the Bible says about God, human
beings, the nature of our physical bodies, and our relationship
with one another, has light to shed on the topic.
The Bible teaches very clearly that our physical bodies are the
temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20), and that we should
therefore be good stewards of our bodies. It therefore prohibits
any form of self-mutilation. Yet, the New Testament also urges
Christians to love one another in a self-sacrificial way. The
supreme example of the unconditional love that is demanded of
God is Jesus Christ, who gave His life for the sake of sinful
humanity.
Jesus taught that His disciples are to love not just their neighbours,
but also their enemies. Just as Jesus loved us and gave up His
body for us, so we are commanded to love one another: "Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1
John 4:11).
Jesus also exhorted His disciples to serve others, and by doing
so they are in fact serving their Lord. Thus, when Jesus spoke
of caring for the hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick and imprisoned
(Matt 25:35-46) He implied that the unconditional love of His
disciples must extend to even strangers. "Verily I say unto
you", Jesus said, "inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"
(Matthew 25:40).
In light of this central biblical teaching about Christian love,
the Christian can conclude that the Bible does not prohibit organ
donation (and transplantation). In fact, the Bible in a sense
encourages this act of sacrificial love and service. The clearest
statement from a leader of the Christian community in favour of
organ donation comes from Pope John Paul II, who in his encyclical
entitled The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae) wrote: "There
is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big and
small, which build up an authentic culture of life. A particularly
praiseworthy example of such gestures is the donation of organs,
performed in an ethically acceptable manner, with a view of offering
a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who sometimes
have no other hope."
Although there are no strong objections to organ donation and
transplantation from the Christian standpoint, there are some
very real and pressing ethical concerns, hinted at in the statement
just quoted. The first has to do with the concern that the procurement
of organs for transplantation does not put the donor in harm's
way. That is to say, obtaining organs for transplant must abide
by the strict ethical codes that govern the practice of medicine
in general.
Related to this is the important issue of informed consent: the
authenticity of such a decisive gesture requires that individuals
be properly informed of the procedures involved and are in a position
to consent or decline in a manner that is both free and conscientious.
This is especially pertinent in the case of the living donor.
In addition, steps must be taken to ensure that the donor is not
under any pressure or duress to offer one of his or her organs
for transplantation. Pressure faced by the donor can come in very
subtle ways, for example, in the unspoken expectations of members
of the family or even from the sick person in need of the organ.
The decision to offer a part of one's body for the health and
wellbeing of another must be made without pressure and any expectation
of reward. It is precisely in this sort of giving that the nobility
of the act as a genuine gesture of love is seen.
We must address, albeit very briefly, the issue of
the sale and purchase of organs for transplantation. Given the
principles already laid out in this essay, we must conclude that
from the Christian standpoint the sale and purchase of organs
for transplantation must never be allowed. This is because such
activities would result in the commercialisation of human organs
where the latter are seen as items of exchange or trade. This
is a violation of human dignity because it essentially looks upon
the human body as an object that can be bought and sold at the
right price.
Other ethical objections to this practice, such as the exploitation
of the poor, are also important considerations. But they are secondary
reasons for prohibiting organ sales. The primary reason has to
do with the fact that such a practice violates human dignity and
will corrode the moral fibre of human society if it is allowed
to flourish.
Space allows me to deal very briefly with just one more ethical
concern with organ procurement that relates to cadaveric donors:
the problem of "brain death". Through the ages, death
is understood as the state of the body without life - cold, blue
and rigid. In 1968, however, an ad hoc committee at Harvard recommended
the neurological criterion for determining death.
According to this view, the patient is said to have died when
there is a cessation of brain activity. This definition of death
is preferred to the tradition cardiopulmonary criterion (which
maintains that death has occurred when heart and lung activities
have ceased) because it allows the procurement of organs for transplantation.
When harvesting organs for transplantation, time is of the essence:
without circulation, the heart and liver are damaged in three
to five minutes, while the kidneys are damaged in about 30 minutes.
The neurological criterion for determining death, however, has
been challenged by some doctors and ethicists alike, and continues
to be a subject of considerable debate.
Dr Roland Chia is Dean of Postgraduate Studies and Lecturer
in Historical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Theological College.
He worships at the Fairfield Preaching Point in Woodlands.
QUOTE:
'The Bible teaches very clearly that our physical bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and that we should therefore be good stewards of our bodies.'