- Feb 5, 2002
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In February, a group of Catholics, primarily academics, all with a knowledge of ethics and Catholic morality, issued a statement cautioning about organ donations but basically concerned about current “brain death” criteria.
Some misunderstood the statement, thinking that it questioned the morality of organ donations. Organ donation, medically possible since the 1950s, means that a person may declare that upon her or his death certain organs can be removed from his or her corpse and surgically inserted into the body of a living person.
For example, if a person suffers from a disease that drastically reduces kidney function, surgeons can remove the bad organ and replace it with the kidney taken from another person’s corpse.
A living person may also donate an organ to someone else.
The Church lauds organ donation. Pope St. John Paul II called organ donation a “genuine act of love.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes organ donation as “noble and meritorious”, to be “encouraged” (No. 2296). Catholic hospitals and physicians around the world, faithful to Catholic ethics, routinely provide for organ donations.
A problem is ascertaining death. Ascertaining death can be medically complex. It is easy to let secondary issues dominate the discussion or to choose the quickest way out. Respecting and preserving life, and certainly not hastening death, is the bottom line.
Continued below.
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Some misunderstood the statement, thinking that it questioned the morality of organ donations. Organ donation, medically possible since the 1950s, means that a person may declare that upon her or his death certain organs can be removed from his or her corpse and surgically inserted into the body of a living person.
For example, if a person suffers from a disease that drastically reduces kidney function, surgeons can remove the bad organ and replace it with the kidney taken from another person’s corpse.
A living person may also donate an organ to someone else.
The Church lauds organ donation. Pope St. John Paul II called organ donation a “genuine act of love.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes organ donation as “noble and meritorious”, to be “encouraged” (No. 2296). Catholic hospitals and physicians around the world, faithful to Catholic ethics, routinely provide for organ donations.
A problem is ascertaining death. Ascertaining death can be medically complex. It is easy to let secondary issues dominate the discussion or to choose the quickest way out. Respecting and preserving life, and certainly not hastening death, is the bottom line.
Deliberately causing death
Continued below.
In medical decisions, preserving life is the bottom line
With medically assisted — and perhaps mandated — suicide on the horizon, Catholics and all medical decision makers must make the principle of preserving and respecting life their guide.
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