Recently reviewing an essay on Organ Donation which I wrote in 1998,[1] I came across some thoughts on the definition personhood. How a “person” is defined plays a vital role in how we approach things like vital organ donation and assisted death. Our society is rapidly moving to a definition of personhood that connects a person’s intrinsic value to their ability to think. Those with less ability to think are considered to have less value and are more easily deemed expendable.… Read the rest
Category Archives: Abortion
Organ Donation – Are Christians Inconsistent?
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,
… Read the restIf 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.
Personhood – People Devalued by Prenatal Diagnostic Testing
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
Personhood -What Do Organ Donation & Abortion Have In Common?
Do organ donation and abortion have something in common? This may seem like an odd question. But the question does arise when one considers both organ donation and abortion in light of personhood or in light of what it means to be a person.
Many Christians reject abortion from the point of conception, citing conception as the beginning of a person’s life. Some pro-abortion people accept abortion in the early stages of pregnancy claiming that the embryo/fetus in early pregnancy is not yet a person. … Read the rest