The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Organ donation a “life” issue

By Jill Waggoner - Nov 30, 2009 - 1 -

While organ donation is typically a topic that arises once a loved one dies or, in many states, when you are renewing your driver’s license, it is an issue that all of us should ponder in advance of our demise.

In a recent interview, Richard Land discussed this “life” issue that many families must confront during a particularly emotional time.

“The question of organ donation is ultimately one that must be left to the individual conscience,” said Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Yet Land added, “The biblical admonitions concerning loving your neighbor as yourself and seeking to alleviate the suffering of others would mitigate in favor of donating one’s organs when it will help sustain a human life or improve the physical condition of a fellow human being and when the individual donor has reached the legal definition of death, such as brain death.”

Land also expressed the possible ethical concerns regarding the doctor’s decision to declare a person “dead.”

“Of we must always be on guard against prematurely abandoning the life of the donor in our haste to provide an increased chance of life for the recipient,” Land said.

He noted there was an ongoing and serious need for Americans to consider organ donation.

According to the Web site, OrganDonor.gov, “More than 103,000 people were on the organ transplant waiting list as of September 2009 despite the fact that more than 14,000 donors made almost 28,000 transplants possible in 2008. Each year, thousands of Americans need corneal or other tissue transplants, and an average of 3,000 individuals at any given time are searching for an unrelated blood stem cell donor.”

In a 2006 statement, Steve Lemke, Provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a fellow with the ERLC’s Research Institute, said there is biblical support for organ donation. His comments echoed the Southern Baptist Convention’s position.

In the statement for the United Network of Organ Sharing, Lemke noted the SBC adopted a resolution at its 1988 convention that endorsed organ donation in certain situations.

He continued, “Citing the positive, life-saving contribution of organ donation, the resolution encouraged ‘physicians to request organ donation in appropriate circumstances.’ The resolution denied that the bodily resurrection required the wholeness of the body at death, and praised the selflessness, stewardship, compassion, and alleviation of suffering associated with organ donation.”

Embracing principles similar to Land’s, Lemke concluded, “While Southern Baptists entrust the ultimate decision about organ donation to individual conscience, biblical principles such as the sanctity of human life, sacrificial and selfless Christ-like love, and the compassionate alleviation of suffering would appear to justify organ donation.”

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing bulletin inserts or other materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.

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