Blood And Organ Donation

[faithcecelia]

What is the official Church teaching on blood and organ donations please? Does this teaching make any distinction between situations such as the UK where these are given purely out of love/generosity and other countries where payment is allowed? Thanks.

[CatherineM]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1310635428' post='2267324']
What is the official Church teaching on blood and organ donations please? Does this teaching make any distinction between situations such as the UK where these are given purely out of love/generosity and other countries where payment is allowed? Thanks.
[/quote]
Donating blood, whole or plasma, is one of the greatest gifts we can give. Organ donation is also a gift of life, but we have to be careful about how it is done.

Live donor transplantation should only be done with complete informed consent. It shouldn't be done out of guilt or pressure. It certainly shouldn't be done for money. The reason is that poor people in third world countries are the obvious target for donation for pay. Some of the places where this is done such as India and Brazil are filled with horror stories of the poor being victimized by the wealthy. Another area of concern is where a couple does IVF and embryo selection in order to make a perfect donor match for a family member who needs a transplant. That is worrisome and filled with ethical issues on a variety of levels.

As to the donation of organs from deceased donors, there is always a chance that the natural process of dying might be hurried or circumvented in order to save organs from degradation. Families often feel later that they have been pressured at the worst moment in their lives. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be organ donors. It just needs to be done carefully, in consultation with a chaplain or pastor to protect the dignity of the donor.

I am an organ donor and a regular blood donor. When I was in grade school, my brother Dail had his throat slashed trying to intervene in a fight where a man was beating a woman in a parking lot. He just made it to the hospital that was close by, and received many units of blood. I remember my dad on the phone calling people to come donate blood. I was in a panic because I didn't think they'd get there in time. That's when he explained that my brother had already gotten the blood he needed from someone who donated previously, and he was called people to donate to replace that for the next person. I donated for the first time on my 17th birthday in his honor, and have done so regularly since. He's 63 now, and married to a woman 20 years his junior. It's important to talk over these issues with your loved ones. Signing a donor card is no guarantee that your wishes will be observed because in almost all jurisdictions, even with a signed card, family consent is still required.