What's the church's view on organ doning?

edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
I'm taking driver's ed now and when you get a license you choose, God forbid, that in case of an accident you die you may or may not donate your organs to someone who needs them and may survive if you do donate your organs....so what's the church's view?

Comments

  • Allows it and in fact supports it. H.H. Pope Shenouda in an interview with an egyptian channel said that if the body will go to destruction after death, and is going to be consumed anyway, it would be better if itc onsumed for for saving the life of somebod else. The arabic quote is actually by far more eloquent as all saying of H.H. The Pope are.
  • Well i wouldve figured that these are not our bodies and we sdhould decide what to do with them such as give organs?
  • I believe John 15:13 could be applied to this situation:

    Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

    Just as life is from God, yet it is a great deed for us to lay them down for our friends sake, would it not also be a great deed to give willingly yourself to another that they may live?
  • Well, i always that verse referred to when you had to deny God to live, you would not and lay down your life for him, or in text, God layed down his life for us, but I don't see how it relates to organ doning, because we are not technically laying down our life because we died without free will
  • You are not laying out your life, Mikey, but you are willing to give your organs to someone else in need of them. That is what "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends." means. You give up something very valuable that you own and donate it to someone else. If you donate your organ to someone, it means you love them so much you will give your body to them and vice versa.
  • ok true, but who are we to give up "our" organs if they do not belong to us? Im just wondering, because this topic seems to contradict everything about this body not belonging to us
  • The church probly won't say no to it. Although I would probly not do it unless it was someone very close to be that I was donating it to.
  • Mikey, the body is yours and the organs are yours as well. You have the choice to give up your organs though. Your body is yours and so are your organs yours but you have the choice to give them up for someone else. If you have a dime and someone asks if they can borrow it, you can say yes or no. If you want to donate your organs to someone is your choice because they are your organs you are giving.
  • [quote author=amakar55 link=board=1;threadid=3957;start=0#msg55754 date=1149196043]
    Mikey, the body is yours and the organs are yours as well. You have the choice to give up your organs though. Your body is yours and so are your organs yours but you have the choice to give them up for someone else. If you have a dime and someone asks if they can borrow it, you can say yes or no. If you want to donate your organs to someone is your choice because they are your organs you are giving.


    We have the freedom to do whatever we like with what has been entrusted to us. The ultimate expression of this freedom would be to take the lives entrusted to us and kill ourselves. However, that would profit us nothing. It would end not only our temoral life, but also deny us eternal life as well.

    I'm not saying organ doning is wrong (I don't really have a view on it personally) but I don't think you can argue that its acceptable just because they're "our" organs, any more than you could argue in favor of suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism, and other things that affect "our" lives, "our" souls, etc.
  • We have the freedom to do whatever we like with what has been entrusted to us. The ultimate expression of this freedom would be to take the lives entrusted to us and kill ourselves. However, that would profit us nothing. It would end not only our temoral life, but also deny us eternal life as well.

    I'm not saying organ doning is wrong (I don't really have a view on it personally) but I don't think you can argue that its acceptable just because they're "our" organs, any more than you could argue in favor of suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism, and other things that affect "our" lives, "our" souls, etc.

    If we were to give our organs to doning after we die, then you would support that then, right?
  • hey andrew, i just found out it was u bc how could sum1 know my first name bc i did not put it in my name, But these bodies r not ours!!!!!! LOL im goin to tell your SS teachers you r not paying attention in class, these bodies are not ours, and thats why i guess there is no clear answer on this topic, other then maybe one of the Moderators has a clear answer!?!?!?!
  • True, Mikey, but when we die, they will decay. If anything dead is put in anything alive, then the thing that was dead will become alive. When you die, you will not be committing suicide in any way.
  • [quote author=amakar55 link=board=1;threadid=3957;start=0#msg55760 date=1149204791]


    If we were to give our organs to doning after we die, then you would support that then, right?

    Yes, I don't see anything wrong with it. All I was saying is that we can't argue in favor of it simply because its "our" body.
  • But these bodies r not ours!!!!!! LOL im goin to tell your SS teachers you r not paying attention in class, these bodies are not ours, and thats why i guess there is no clear answer on this topic, other then maybe one of the Moderators has a clear answer!?!?!?!

    How are these bodys not ours?
  • i was at a session with a church father not long ago when this question was asked he stated that our church does not disagree with organ donation therefore if you want to donate your organs you can do so. also it is not considered in any way as destroying your ody the temple of the Lord.

    Kristina123
  • God made our bodies. Therefore, our bodies belong to Him.
  • I attended a session about this with a priest at my church who told us, and I wholeheartedly agree that donating organs is COMPLETELY ALLOWED, AND IN FACT IS SUPPORTED IN THE COPTIC CHURCH (I plan on donating my organs).

    Firstly, what people don't understand is that organ donation is usually from somebody who is dead. The only organ you can donate while being alive is ONE kidney but no doctor will ever ask you to donate a kidney unless it is for a relative of yours.

    By agreeing to donate your organs after you die means you are giving somebody else the oppurtunity to live. Those organs are just going to sit and rot in your casket anyway, so make the most of them.

    This issue has NOTHING to do with who your body belongs to. The fact is that once you die, your body does not come with you to heaven. Your body is left to decompose on the earth. It has no meaning whatsoever anymore. However, the organs can be used to help somebody who is still alive, so why not take advantage of that?

    see: http://www.copticchurch.org/Writings_Youth/Organ Transplants.htm for more info.

    I shall conclude with a quote from Pope Shenouda:

    "If love can reach the point of sacrifice, and sacrifice can reach the point of laying down one’s life, then how easy it is for the one who lays down his life for others to donate an organ of his body to save others!"

  • Thank you. I could not have said it better myself. :)
  • umm i heard that u can..but u firstly have to be willing...Alive...and couldnt put ur life in danger...

  • "but u firstly have to be willing...Alive...and couldnt put ur life in danger..."

    You do not have to be alive to organ done. If someone puts in their will that when they die, bad el shar, they will give up their organs to organ done, then that is better than risking someone alive's organs and doning it. How can someone dead be damaged when they organ done? As I said earlier, "If anything dead is put in anything alive, then the thing that was dead will become alive."
  • [quote author=amakar55 link=board=1;threadid=3957;start=15#msg55941 date=1149562573]
    Thank you. I could not have said it better myself. :)


    Wow, somebody actually appreciates my posts ;D :o :P. That is definately a first. Thanks a million amakar55 ;D ;D ;D...okay that's enough smiley faces for today...
  • [quote author=amakar55 link=board=1;threadid=3957;start=15#msg55986 date=1149648088]
    "but u firstly have to be willing...Alive...and couldnt put ur life in danger..."

    You do not have to be alive to organ done. If someone puts in their will that when they die, bad el shar, they will give up their organs to organ done, then that is better than risking someone alive's organs and doning it. How can someone dead be damaged when they organ done? As I said earlier, "If anything dead is put in anything alive, then the thing that was dead will become alive."



    oops sorry..i dunno why i said alive..cant memba what im eant though..sorry..i withdraw my lst post :-[
  • [quote author=amakar55 link=board=1;threadid=3957;start=15#msg55986 date=1149648088]
    "If anything dead is put in anything alive, then the thing that was dead will become alive."


    This is not entirely true. In order to be able to successfully transplant an organ into another person, the cells in that organ must not have died. There is no artificial way to revive dead cells. If we figured out how to do this then we would never die. Therefore, the organ must be removed from the person's body as soon as he dies to prevent the natural processes of cell death that occur when an organ loses oxygen supply (usu. due to insufficient blood supply). If you could just add return the blood supply to dead tissue to revive it, then there would be no permanent effects of a heart attack. Once the heart tissue loses its blood supply for long enough it dies and is unrevivable.

    This creates a moral dilemma. There have been cases of overzealous doctors who prematurely give up on trying to revive a patient eho has been in an accident, just so that they can retrieve his organs before they begin to get damaged.
  • No that is true. I remember reading in the Guinness World Book of Records that a man was in an accident and lost his forearm. Doctors had to cut the forearm of a dead body and conduct surgery to connect it to the man's elbow. The forearm was a DEAD person's forearm.
  • [quote author=amakar55 link=board=1;threadid=3957;start=15#msg56070 date=1149801129]
    No that is true. I remember reading in the Guinness World Book of Records that a man was in an accident and lost his forearm. Doctors had to cut the forearm of a dead body and conduct surgery to connect it to the man's elbow. The forearm was a DEAD person's forearm.


    1) I was talking in medical generalities. Anyone who has had any experience with the field of medicine including as a patient knows that many amazing things can happen, but these are not the norm. Therefore, you can't take one case, especially one rare enough to be published in the Guiness Book of World Record, as the basis for medical practice. There have been people who have hade massive cancers miraculously vansih without a trace. These are miracles and cannot be taken as standard.

    2) Limbs are very much different from most of the organs that are transplanted. Skeletal muscle and bone do not have as high an oxygen demand as the major organs, heart, kidney etc.

    3) I never said that you cannot transplant organs from a dead person. Of course the person is dead, but the organs must be removed immediately after death to ensure minimal damage has occured to them.
  • 1) Actually, you are correct because you need a lot of doctors to actually attempt to do this miracle and others similar to them.

    2) You are kind of shifting the topic but you are correct also in the fact that the blood that bones make (not just limbs) do not have as high oxygen level so therefore, bones do not have as high oxygen level as organs.

    3) Correct but that pretty much contradicts number 1.
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