Is refusing to donate your organs after death selfish? The challenging issue of Organ Donation.

Three Thinking - Edition 014 - Tuesday 21 July 2015

The loss of a loved one is an absolutely terrible experience, and the period we spend mourning can be the darkest time of our life. Immediately after the death of a loved one is a time of great shock, grief and despair...yet it is also the time the most courageous and selfless of acts take place. It is the time when relatives may consent and allow the organs of a loved one to offer another human being life, in the form of an organ transplant.

Challenge: Think about your attitudes to Organ
Donation - would you consider getting a Donor
Card? 

Organ donation after death has been in the news recently, with the news that 1,282 people donated their organs after dying last year. Organ donation can be a difficult decision, both personally and ethically, but it is certainly agreed by many that it can bring life out of death, and joy out of sorrow.

From a religious aspect, it really forces us to confront what we believe about life after death: when I think about a 'Heaven' or other sort of afterlife, I ask myself whether I would be there in physical form, respiring, walking, eating, sleeping in the way I would during my life as a mortal being here on Earth. If the answer is yes, then I would certainly want to keep my organs so I can exist in that supernatural World! If the answer is no, and that the afterlife I "travel" to is spiritual rather than physical, then why don't I use the opportunity to bring happiness and joy - my last act of selflessness and kindness - by giving life to another human being when I clearly no longer need my organs?

Is it selfish to refuse to donate your organs after death if you don't need them any longer? Does the fact that more than 1,200 people died whilst waiting for an organ transplant (or were removed from the list because of deteriorating health) in the UK alter your answer to that question?

So make sure you spend time thinking about your mortality, how you could do good and give life, happiness and hope after your own death, and ask whether organ donation is for you. It's vital we confront big questions, such as whether we would give consent for the organs of a loved one to be donated if they suddenly passed away, so we are not overwhelmed if such an eventuality were to come along.

THINK & REFLECT - Think about your attitudes to Organ Donation; would you consider donating your organs after death? Would you need them any longer? What good could you do by donating your organs to bring life to another human being?

Please feel free to share any views, comments or questions below.
You can read more about Organ Donation, via the NHS website, by clicking here.