Organ donation can seem like a positive thing. The life of a young child, a teenage, a mother, a father, a business man, a loved one can be spared. Many deaths seem to come about because of failure of one organ or another. If we can replace the failing organ, we can continue to live. Is not the Christian ethic to promote life?
Of course, vital organs, those organs necessary for the body to live, can not be taken out of a person and that person continue to live. … Read the rest
Gilbert Meilaender, a professor of theology at Valparaiso University, an independent Lutheran liberal arts university, has written a thought provoking essay on organ donation, title, Second Thoughts About Body Parts. (Click on title to read the essay.)1
Gilbert does not definitely rule out organ donation from brain dead donors but his comments suggest that he struggles with the concept and gives a number of cautions about proceeding down this path. He expresses understanding about the struggle that Christians go through who are faced with a loved on who will die without an organ transplant (see p100 or the last paragraph in this summary.)… Read the rest
In the blog titled Personhood-the-most-important-question-today I raised the question with respect to Vital Organ Donation, “Does vital organ procurement result in the death of the person? Or is the person somehow separate from the body, such that the person can be dead and the body still alive?”
In blogs titled Personhood-What Is It? and Personhood-Image of God, I said that persons are specially created by God. Persons are the image of God. Persons are united body and soul. A persons special status begins at conception and continues until death, at which time the body returns to the dust and the soul goes to God.… Read the rest
In the blog entry titled, Vital Organ Donation – The Most Important Question, I proposed the following “most important question.”
The question: Is it possible for a person to be dead while their body is still alive?
The answer one gives to this question depends on what one believes is the make-up of a living person. The true answer to this question comes only from a true understanding of what it is to be a living person. From a biblical perspective, with death of a person, the body goes to the dust and the soul goes to wait to be reunited with the body to face judgment at the last day. … Read the rest