Religious Views on Donation

by pastorgrace | May 25, 2011 5:37 pm

AME & AME Zion (African Methodist Epis­co­pal)
Organ and tis­sue dona­tion is viewed as an act of neigh­borly love and char­ity by these denom­i­na­tions. They encour­age all mem­bers to sup­port dona­tion as a way of help­ing others.

Amish
The Amish con­sent to dona­tion if they know it is for the health and wel­fare of the trans­plant recip­i­ent. They believe that since God cre­ated the human body, it is God who heals. How­ever, they are not for­bid­den from using mod­ern med­ical ser­vices, includ­ing surgery, hos­pi­tal­iza­tion, den­tal work, anes­the­sia, blood trans­fu­sions, or immunization.

Assem­bly of God
The Church has no offi­cial pol­icy regard­ing dona­tion. The deci­sion to donate is left up to the indi­vid­ual. Dona­tion is highly sup­ported by the denomination.

Bap­tist
Though Bap­tists gen­er­ally believe that organ and tis­sue dona­tion and trans­plan­ta­tion are ulti­mately mat­ters of per­sonal con­science, the nation’s largest Protes­tant denom­i­na­tion, the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion, adopted a res­o­lu­tion in 1988 encour­ag­ing physi­cians to request organ dona­tion in appro­pri­ate cir­cum­stances and to ‘…encour­age vol­un­tarism regard­ing organ dona­tions in the spirit of stew­ard­ship, com­pas­sion for the needs of oth­ers and alle­vi­at­ing suf­fer­ing.’ Other Bap­tist groups have sup­ported organ and tis­sue dona­tion as an act of char­ity and leave the deci­sion to donate up to the individual.

Bud­dhism
Bud­dhists believe organ dona­tion is a mat­ter that should be left to an individual’s con­science. Rev­erend Gyomay Masao Kubose, pres­i­dent and founder of The Bud­dhist Tem­ple of Chicago and a prac­tic­ing min­is­ter, says, “We honor those peo­ple who donate their bod­ies and organs to the advance­ment of med­ical sci­ence and to sav­ing lives.” The impor­tance of let­ting loved ones know your wishes is stressed.

By HIS Grace Church.
God gave us life, Jesus gave us eter­nal life, we should share of our­selves. To heal oth­ers with this ves­sel (body) when we no longer need it. God will make all things whole.

Catholi­cism
Catholics view organ dona­tion as an act of char­ity, fra­ter­nal love and self sac­ri­fice. Trans­plants are eth­i­cally and morally accept­able to the Vat­i­can. Pope John Paul II stated, “The Catholic Church would pro­mote the fact that there is a need for organ donors and that Chris­tians should accept this as a “chal­lenge to their gen­eros­ity and fra­ter­nal love” so long as eth­i­cal prin­ci­ples are followed.”

Chris­t­ian Church (Dis­ci­ples of Christ)
The Chris­t­ian Church encour­ages organ and tis­sue dona­tion, stat­ing that we were cre­ated for God’s glory and for shar­ing God’s love. A 1985 res­o­lu­tion, adopted by the Gen­eral Assem­bly, encour­ages “mem­bers of the Chris­t­ian Church (Dis­ci­ples of Christ) to enroll as organ donors and prayer­fully sup­port those who have received an organ transplant.”

The Church of Christ, Sci­en­tist
Chris­t­ian Sci­en­tists do not take a spe­cific posi­tion on trans­plants or organ dona­tion. They nor­mally rely on spir­i­tual, rather than med­ical means for heal­ing. Organ and tis­sue dona­tion is an issue that is left to the indi­vid­ual church member.

Epis­co­pal
The Epis­co­pal Church rec­og­nizes the life-​giving ben­e­fits of organ, blood, and tis­sue dona­tion. All Chris­tians are encour­aged to become organ, blood, and tis­sue donors “as part of their min­istry to oth­ers in the name of Christ, who gave His life that we may have life in its fullness.”

Greek Ortho­dox
Accord­ing to Rev­erend Dr. Mil­ton Efthimiou, Direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Church and Soci­ety for the Greek Ortho­dox Church of North and South Amer­ica, “The Greek Ortho­dox Church is not opposed to organ dona­tion as long as the organs and tis­sue in ques­tion are used to bet­ter human life, i.e., for trans­plan­ta­tion or for research that will lead to improve­ments in the treat­ment and pre­ven­tion of disease.”

Gyp­sies
Gyp­sies tend to be against organ dona­tion. Although they have no for­mal res­o­lu­tion, their oppo­si­tion is asso­ci­ated with their belief in the after-​life. Gyp­sies believe that for one year after a per­son dies, the soul retraces its steps. All parts of the body must remain intact because the soul main­tains a phys­i­cal shape.

Hin­duism
Hin­dus are not pro­hib­ited by reli­gious law from donat­ing their organs, accord­ing to the Hindu Tem­ple Soci­ety of North Amer­ica. In fact, Hindu mythol­ogy includes sto­ries in which parts of the human body are used for the ben­e­fit of other humans and soci­ety. The act is an indi­vid­ual decision.

Inde­pen­dent Con­ser­v­a­tive Evan­gel­i­cal
Gen­er­ally, Evan­gel­i­cals have had no oppo­si­tion to organ and tis­sue dona­tion. Dona­tion is an indi­vid­ual decision.

Islam
Mus­lims believe in the prin­ci­ple of sav­ing human lives, and per­mit organ trans­plants as a means of achiev­ing that noble end.

Jehovah’s Wit­nesses
Jehovah’s Wit­nesses believe dona­tion is a mat­ter best left to an individual’s con­science. All organs and tis­sue, how­ever, must be com­pletely drained of blood before transplantation.

Judaism
All four branches of Judaism (Ortho­dox, Con­ser­v­a­tive, Reform, and Recon­struc­tion­ist) sup­port and encour­age dona­tion. Said Ortho­dox Rabbi Moses Tendier, “if one is in the posi­tion to donate an organ to save another’s life, it’s oblig­a­tory to do so, even if the donor never knows who the ben­e­fi­ciary will be. The basic prin­ci­ple of Jew­ish ethics — ‘the infi­nite worth of the human being’ — also includes dona­tion of corneas, since eye­sight restora­tion is con­sid­ered a life-​saving oper­a­tion.” In 1991, the Rab­bini­cal Coun­cil of Amer­ica (Ortho­dox) approved organ dona­tions as per­mis­si­ble, and even required, from brain-​dead patients. The reform move­ment looks upon the trans­plant pro­gram favor­ably. Rabbi Richard Address, Direc­tor of the Union of Amer­i­can Hebrew Con­gre­ga­tions Bio-​Ethics Com­mit­tee, stated that, “Judaic Responsa mate­ri­als pro­vide a pos­i­tive approach and by and large the North Amer­i­can Reform Jew­ish com­mu­nity approves of transplantation.”

Lutheran
In 1984, the Lutheran Church in Amer­ica passed a res­o­lu­tion stat­ing that dona­tion con­tributes to the well-​being of human­ity and can be “…an expres­sion of sac­ri­fi­cial love for a neigh­bor in need.” They call on mem­bers to con­sider donat­ing organs and to make any nec­es­sary fam­ily and legal arrange­ments, includ­ing the use of a signed donor card.

Men­non­ite
Men­non­ites have no for­mal posi­tion on dona­tion, but are not opposed to it. They leave the deci­sion to the indi­vid­ual or his/​her family.

Mora­vian
The Mora­vian Church has made no state­ment address­ing organ and tis­sue dona­tion or trans­plan­ta­tion. Robert E. Sawyer, Pres­i­dent, Provin­cial Elders Con­fer­ence, Mora­vian Church of Amer­ica, South­ern Province, states, “There is noth­ing in our doc­trine or pol­icy that would pre­vent a Mora­vian pas­tor from assist­ing a fam­ily in mak­ing a deci­sion to donate or not to donate an organ.” It is, there­fore, a mat­ter of indi­vid­ual choice.

Mor­mons
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-​Day Saints con­sid­ers the deci­sion to donate organs a self­less act that often results in great ben­e­fit and the deci­sion to donate for med­ical pur­poses, or the deci­sion to autho­rize dona­tion from a deceased fam­ily mem­ber is made by the indi­vid­ual or deceased member’s fam­ily. The Church states that the deci­sion should be made after receiv­ing com­pe­tent med­ical coun­sel and con­fir­ma­tion through prayer.

Pen­te­costal
Pen­te­costals leave the deci­sion to donate up to the individual.

Pres­by­ter­ian
Pres­by­te­ri­ans encour­age and endorse dona­tion. It’s an individual’s right to make deci­sions regard­ing his or her own body.

Seventh-​Day Adven­tist
Dona­tion and trans­plan­ta­tion are strongly encour­aged. Seventh-​Day Adven­tists have many trans­plant hos­pi­tals, includ­ing Loma Linda in Cal­i­for­nia, which spe­cial­izes in pedi­atric heart transplantation.

Shinto
In Shinto, the dead body is con­sid­ered impure and dan­ger­ous, and thus quite pow­er­ful. Injur­ing a dead body is a seri­ous crime. It is dif­fi­cult to obtain con­sent from bereaved fam­i­lies for organ dona­tion or dis­sec­tion for med­ical edu­ca­tion or patho­log­i­cal anatomy because Shin­tos relate dona­tion to injur­ing a dead body. Fam­i­lies are con­cerned that they not injure the itai, the rela­tion­ship between the dead per­son and the bereaved people.

Soci­ety of Friends (Quak­ers)
Quak­ers do not have an offi­cial posi­tion. They believe that organ and tis­sue dona­tion is an indi­vid­ual decision.

Uni­tar­ian Uni­ver­sal­ist
Organ and tis­sue dona­tion is widely sup­ported by Uni­tar­ian Uni­ver­sal­ists. They view it as an act of love and self­less giving.

United Church of Christ
Rev­erend Jay Lint­ner stated, “United Church of Christ peo­ple, churches and agen­cies are extremely and over­whelm­ingly sup­port­ive of organ shar­ing. The Gen­eral Synod has never spo­ken to this issue because, in gen­eral, the Synod speaks on more con­tro­ver­sial issues, and there is no con­tro­versy about organ shar­ing, just as there is no con­tro­versy about blood dona­tion in the denom­i­na­tion. While the Gen­eral Synod has never spo­ken about blood dona­tion, blood dona­tion rooms have been set up at sev­eral Gen­eral Syn­ods. Sim­i­larly, any orga­nized effort to get the Gen­eral Synod del­e­gates or indi­vid­ual churches to sign organ dona­tion cards would meet with gen­er­ally pos­i­tive responses.”

United Methodist
The United Methodist Church issued a pol­icy state­ment regard­ing organ and tis­sue dona­tion. In it, they state that, “The United Methodist Church rec­og­nizes the life-​giving ben­e­fits of organ and tis­sue dona­tion, and thereby encour­ages all Chris­tians to become organ and tis­sue donors by sign­ing and car­ry­ing cards or driver’s licenses, attest­ing to their com­mit­ment of such organs upon their death, to those in need, as a part of their min­istry to oth­ers in the name of Christ, who gave his life that we might have life in its full­ness.” A 1992 res­o­lu­tion states, “Dona­tion is to be encour­aged, assum­ing appro­pri­ate safe­guards against has­ten­ing death and deter­mi­na­tion of death by reli­able cri­te­ria.” The res­o­lu­tion fur­ther states, “Pastoral-​care per­sons should be will­ing to explore these options as a nor­mal part of con­ver­sa­tion with patients and their families.”

© 2011, By His Grace Church[1]. All rights reserved.

Source URL: http://byhisgracechurch.com/2011/05/25/religious-views-on-donation/

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