The Great Gift: Organ Donation

This week, I have read an article in the local newspapers of Kerala about the organ donation of a 21 year old engineering student, who had met with an accident and declared brain dead. It was the wish of his parents to donate his organs after the brain death of their only son. Arun George, an engineering student, had met with an accident on December 16 and declared brain dead by doctors attending on him. His father, George, a businessman, expressed willingness to donate his son’s organs to hospital authorities. I personally know that boy and his family for last six years, since I was assistant parish priest in their parish for one year. Arun’s one kidney was transplanted on a 32 year old woman, while the other on an 18 year old boy. The eyes and liver were given to three people who were in utter need of them. 

This incident persuaded me to think about the beauty and nobility of the parents’ decision in such a grievous occasion. Parents of young people who die are mostly too shocked to think about organ donation. But the parents of Arun do not belong to that category. Though steeped in grief, they decided to donate the organs of their son. Usually doctors tell parents about the option to donate the organs of the brain-dead patient, but in most of the cases the parents will not agree. “This could be a historic event of sorts as far as the present situation is concerned,” said Dr. P P Venugopal, head of emergency medicine at MIMS Hospital, Kozhikode after this incident. 

Let’s take a look at what the Catholic Church teaches on organ donation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2296) states: “Organ transplants are in conformity with the moral law if the physical and psychological dangers and risks to the donor are proportionate to the good that is sought for the recipient. Organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy has not given explicit consent. Moreover, it is not morally admissible directly to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons.” Organ donation can help so many people who have no other means of surviving unless they receive a donor organ. For instance, one organ donor donating the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys could possibly help six different individuals. 

Pope John Paul II in the encyclical Evangelium Vitae (No. 86) said: “Over and above such outstanding moments, there is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big and small, which build up an authentic culture of life. A particularly praiseworthy example of such gestures is the donation of organs, performed in an ethically acceptable manner, with a view to offering a chance of health and even life to the sick who sometimes have no hope.” Pope John Paul II, in his address to the First International Congress of the Society for Organ Sharing in 1991, described organ donation as “a concrete gesture of human solidarity and a projection beyond death of the sort of self-giving love that society needs. “Since transplantation is essentially a human act of donation, it presupposes a prior, explicit, free and conscious decision on the part of the donor or of someone who legitimately represents the donor, usually the closest relatives.” 

In 1999 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, disclosed that he was a registered organ donor, saying “to donate one’s organs is an act of love that is morally licit, as long as it is free and spontaneous”. In his address to the participants in the international congress, sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life, the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, and the Italian National Transplant Centre, on Nov. 7, 2008, ‘A Gift for Life: Considerations on Organ Donation’, Pope Benedict XVI said that organ donation is a unique testimony of charity. According to him, in a time such as ours, frequently marked by various forms of egotism, it is more and more urgent to understand how it is necessary to enter into the logic of gratitude to correctly understand life. There exists, in fact, a responsibility of love and charity that commits oneself to make one's own life a gift for others, if one truly seeks one's own fulfilment. As Lord Jesus taught us, only by given one's life, can you save it (cf. Luke 9:24). So, he opines that, the act of love, which is expressed with the gift of one's own vital organs, is a genuine testament of charity that knows how to look beyond death so that life always wins. The recipient should be aware of the value of this gesture that one receives, of a gift that goes beyond the therapeutic benefit. What they receive is a testament of love, and it should give rise to a response equally generous, and in this way grows the culture of gift and gratitude.

Pope Benedict XVI in his address 'A Gift for Life: Considerations on Organ Donation’, suggests that the path that must be followed, until science discovers new and more advanced possible therapies, needs to be that of the formation and diffusion of a culture characterized by solidarity and that opens itself to others without excluding anyone. "Organ transplants that are in line with ethic of giving require the commitment of all sides to invest every possible effort in formation and information, so as to increasingly awaken consciences to a problem that directly affects the lives of so many. It would be necessary, then, to overcome prejudices and misunderstanding, dispel suspicions and fears and substitute them with certainties and guarantees, so as to create in all people an awareness, ever more widespread, of the great gift of life".
The greatest gift God gave us is He Himself in the person of Jesus. It is this greatest Gift that we remember on Christmas. The greatest gift you can give God is yourself. So, the 'gift' on this Christmas Arun and his family made is, in that way, so precious and great; because Jesus himself said: “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”

The reason God gave you life is so that you would have something precious to give back to Him. The reason God gave you more than you need is so that you would have to give to those who do not have. Our God is full of compassion and He loves to give; he is constantly giving to us so that we may give to others what we receive from Him.

Have a Blessed Christmas!