A friend commented on my posting titled, Personhood – Which Comes First Death of the Body or Departure of Soul?. In this posting I said that, so far, our society agrees that a person must be dead for vital organs to be taken. My friend pointed out that if a person is unresponsive and sure to die very soon, that there are people who do not have a problem with taking vital organs, even among Christians. Some will agree that this may result in the person dying sooner but will think that this in not really a problem because the person is going to die anyway. … Read the rest
Tag Archives: soul
Personhood – Which Comes First, Death of the Body or Departure of Soul?
Why would we concern ourselves with which comes first, the death of the body or the departure of the soul?
This question becomes important when we desire vital organs for transplantation. Vital organs must come from bodies that are alive. See blog posting Vital Organ Donation – The Most Important Question. So far, our society generally agrees that a person must be dead for vital organs to be removed. For vital organ donation to be right there needs to be a way for a person to be dead, while their body is still alive.… Read the rest
Personhood – Image of God
In my blog post Personhood-What Is It, I said that to have personhood, is to have the intrinsic value of a human being with all the rights and responsibilities that go along with being human.
The Christian worldview, the worldview of the Bible, holds that God, with the creation of mankind, gives mankind special intrinsic value. A name for this intrinsic value, in modern language, is personhood. Mankind is created in a special way that is different from animals. Genesis 1:26-27 says,
… Read the restThen God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Organ Donation – Are Brain Dead Really Dead?
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