Recently I read a blog post by Christopher Bogosh[1] titled Fetal Body Parts, Brain-Dead Donors, and inconsistent Christians.[2] He writes,
While Christians are irate when it comes to abortion and fetal body parts, they are peculiarly silent when it comes to harvesting organs from brain-dead organ donors—Christians are gravely inconsistent concerning this matter.
Is this true that many Christians’ beliefs are inconsistent when it comes to their approach to organ donation?
Included in the argument Christopher writes,
If life begins at conception, or when the blastocyst attaches to the uterine wall, then life starts five to six weeks before the neurological system and brain develops.
Recently I attended a medical lecture on prenatal diagnostic testing. I was left with the question, “In the provision of this testing, what are we saying about the value of those disabled from birth?
Prenatal diagnostic testing is testing offered to pregnant moms to attempt to determine if their baby may have a condition like Down Syndrome or various other conditions resulting from chromosome and other genetic abnormalities. Earlier and earlier ways to identify these conditions in a pregnancy are looked for, since the primary purpose for this testing is to offer abortion of babies considered “defective” while it is still “safe” to do so.… Read the rest
For the harvesting of vital organs from bodies that appear to be alive to be considered acceptable, it becomes important to be able to define a person as dead while their body is still “alive.” Taking of vital organs, necessarily, results in the death of the body. To harvest vital organs before a person is dead is not acceptable within biblical Christianity, since the Bible contains commands against killing. See blog posting Vital Organ Donation – The Most Important Question.… Read the rest
In the posting titled Personhood – Which Comes First Death of the Body or Departure of the Soul[1] I grappled with the question of the mind. Science can show that activities of the mind and physical activities in the brain are connected but science does not prove that the mind is simply a function of physical brain activity. Clearly, for others to know that thoughts are occurring in a person’s mind the person must have a functioning brain to express the thoughts through.… Read the rest
Worldview and Ethical Issues from a Biblical Perspective
