Organ donation: the ultimate gift
This week we feature the story of 18-year-old Emile Leaner, one of 5000 South Africans in need of a kidney transplant. It is ironic that on the day after The Southern Cross interviewed Emile, the most eminent pioneer in the field of organ transplantation, Dr Christiaan Barnard, died.
In Dr Barnard’s day, most transplant patients were not expected to live long. Today, thanks to the rapid progress in transplant techniques, most recipients of donated organs live full and productive lives. The problem now is a lack of organ donors.
The Catholic Church sees organ donation as an act of “eminent charity.” Pope John Paul, addressing an international medical conference in Rome last year, said that organ donors help to build up “a genuine culture of life” and make a “gesture which is a genuine act of love.”
Most organ donation follows the donor’s death. Depending on the donor’s physical condition at the time of death, several lives may be saved. While one light has faded, others receive a new life. Organ recipients often speak about continuing their journey of life in the company of their “donor saints.”
The Church subscribes to the view that the brain death test–where the cessation of all brain activity is determined as the point of clinical death–does not pose a threat to the dignity of the human person. However, the Church warns against commercialisation or discrimination in the distribution of organs. Accordingly, the gift of an organ must remain unconditional.
The decision to donate an organ is indeed an ultimate act of Christian charity. This is even more so in the case of living donors, usually of kidneys and bone marrow. It is a sacrifice that is, understandably, a step too far for many. Yet, when The Southern Cross last year published an appeal for a kidney for a Congolese nun, almost 30 readers responded.
Pope John Paul articulated the Christian motivation in donating an organ most compellingly: “It is not a matter of giving away something that belongs to us, but of giving something of ourselves. There is a need to instil in people’s hearts…a genuine and deep appreciation of the need for brotherly love, a love that can find expression in the decision to become an organ donor.”
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