A
guide to organ donation and Christian beliefs
Organ donation
Organ donation is the gift of an organ to help
someone else who needs a transplant. Hundreds of people's
lives are saved each year by organ transplants. Organs that
can be donated by people who have died include the heart,
lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas and small bowel. Tissue such
as skin, bone, heart valves and corneas can also be used to
help others.
When can organ
donation take place?
Doctors and nurses are committed to doing everything
possible to save life. Organs are only removed for transplantation
once all attempts to save life have failed and after death
has been certified by a doctor or doctors who are entirely
independent of the transplant team.
Most donated organs come from people who die from a severe brain injury and who receive treatment on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. The brain injury damages vital centres in the brain stem which are essential to maintain life. No one can live once these centres have been destroyed. Tests can show conclusively when this has happened.
In some circumstances, patients who die in hospital but are not on a ventilator may also donate. They are called non-heartbeating donors.
Sometimes people who do not die in hospital can become tissue donors.
Consent
The consent, or lack of objection, of those closest
to the patient is always sought before organs can be donated.
This is why it is so important for people to discuss their
wishes with their loved ones. Donation is an individual choice
and views differ even within the same religious groups. Many
families who agree to organ donation have said that it helps
to know some good has come from their loss.
Care and respect
The removal of organs
is carried out with the greatest care and respect. The family
can see the body afterwards and staff can contact a chaplain
or local religious leader if the family wishes.
Organ donation
and Christianity
The Lord demonstrated with his own life how, even
in sorrow, love enables us to embrace the needs of others.
We can choose to donate our organs to save the lives of many
people. The decision to donate at the end of life is the beginning
of healing for many others.
Healing and saving life is a great gift. Jesus sent his twelve disciples out with the imperative to heal disease and illness.
"Heal the sick…freely ye have received, freely give."
Matthew chapter 10:8
"In eternity we will neither have nor need our earthly bodies: former things will pass away, all things will be made new."
Revelation chapter 21: 4,5
"I hope that Christian people will seriously and positively consider organ donation. The ready willingness to donate an organ is a clear sign of that sacrificial self-giving for others patterned by Jesus Christ."
David Ebor, Archbishop of York
"Every organ transplant has its source in a decision of great ethical value… Here lies the nobility of a gesture which is a genuine act of love. There is a need to instil in people's hearts a genuine and deep love that can find expression in the decision to become an organ donor."
His Holiness Pope John Paul II
"Any act that can save life, such as organ donation, is a great thing and quite acceptable within our faith."
Council of African & Afro-Caribbean Chuches (UK)
"The Methodist Church has consistently supported organ donation and transplantation in appropriate circumstances, as a means through which healing and health may be made possible."
Methodist Church UK
"Christians should generally be encouraged to help others in need and organ donation can be a very concrete and sacrificial way of helping."
The Rt Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali
Bishop of Rochester
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