The Spiritual Values of Organ Donation - Assignment Example

Organ Donation Introduction Organ donation is a philanthropic activity, which is usually performed by the human being in order to save a human life. Over the years, it has been observed that individuals have donated their organs such as kidneys, liver, eyes, lungs and heart among others in order to replace damage organs of any individual. It has been revealed that organ donation can be done in three different ways such as ‘donation after the cardiac death’, ‘donation after brain stem death’ and ‘live organ donation’. In this assignment, the objective is to highlight the spiritual values of organs donation. Apart from this, the assignment will also highlight the Catechism belief and other religious belief regarding organ donation. Question # 1 What Does the Church, CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church) Teach About Organ Donation? In accordance with Paul II (2000), Catechism of the Catholic Church assumed that by donating organs human can save the life of other human beings. In this regard, Catholic believers have shown their respect for the human life (Paul II, 2000). It also defines their dignity for each human life. Moreover, as per Catholic believe it has been observed that organ donation is completely acceptable if the donor in this context does not bear any risk regarding his/ her life. On the other hand, it is apparent that organ donation is treated as a noble act in Catholic culture, thus donating organs after death is completely acceptable and legal in case of Catholic culture (Paul II, 2000). Question # 2 What Are Other Religions Teach/Believe About Organ Donation? As per the observation it has been revealed that organ donation is considered as a gift in case of a Hindu culture. Moreover, it is perceived that Hindu culture usually donate their organs only after the death. Apart from this, it has been evident that thousands of Hindus have saved human life every year by donating or transplanting organs to others (NHS Blood and Transplant, 2012). On the contrary, in case of Islamic culture, it has been observed that in the Islamic religious book there is nothing specifically mentioned about organ transplantation. However, in order to identify the reason behind the issue, it has been recognized that organ donation and transplantation are the modern developments of medicine science, thus it has not been written on the Quran (The Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2011). Question # 3 What Are the Spiritual Values of Organ Donation According to Bresnahan et al., (2010), spiritual values and beliefs are the major barriers, which can pose obligations for families in case of organ donation (Bresnahan et al., 2010). It was observed that the United States and China have developed their medical science in order to reduce the mortality rate of human being by discovering the opportunity of transplanting organs from brain-dead individuals and living individuals. In this regards, it has been observed that during the removal of organs or tissues, the family members of dead person felt that the medical institutions are showing disrespect towards the dead person. This aspect of the people causes difficulties for the medical institutions with respect to organ donation. Moreover, as per the study, it has been identified that most of the Chinese families believed that donating the organs such as eyes, kidneys and livers among others after the death is unlucky. During the 21st century, traditional organ donation trend has been changed. It has been perceived that Chinese and American family members often show their positive attitude towards the organ donation with respect to spiritual values (Bresnahan et al., 2010). Question # 4 What Are the Differing Opinions within the Catholic Church Itself? It has been identified that Catholic culture keeps indifferent view about organ donation in case of dead and alive person. As per the study, it has revealed that few Catholic believed that after death organ donation is not appropriate because, during this stage the person is in his /her way to the God. Thus, the person should posses all their organs. Whereas, as per their believe human can donate his organs or blood when alive (Byrne, 1999). On the contrary, it has been perceived that Catholic also believed that human can donate their blood when alive. They can also donate their organs even after death if the person is free from any sort of disease or infection in his/her organs. Moreover, it has been observed that the people of catholic religion believe that the organ transplantation should be done after death of a human being within the time span of thirty minutes (Byrne, 1999). Question # 5 Case Study In order to analyse a case, it has been observed that a young man suffered from heart disease and during that phase, a boy died on the same medical institution. At that point of time, as per the wish of the parents of that boy, the heart of the dead boy was used to replace the heart of that young man. As an effect, it has been observed that after the transplantation of heart the young man found himself to be stronger than earlier. From the case, it has been observed that the young man gets his life as a gift from the young boy, who had lost his own life (Griffin, 2007). Thus, during the modern era it can be perceived that approximately more than 100,000 patients in the United States are looking ahead for transplantation of their several organs in order to find a new life. Moreover, it has been observed that demands of organs are comparatively higher than that of the supply of human organs (Bresnahan et al., 2010). Conclusion From the above assignment, it has been perceived that during the 21st century the advance technology has upraised the efficiency level of medical science. On the other hand, it has been observed that people of Catholic, Islamic and other culture have also eradicated their superstitions from their mind, which has helped medical science to save the human lives from death. Hence, it can be concluded that organ donation is indeed a noble attempt where many lives can be saved. References Byrne, P. A. (1999). Catholics and organ donation. Retrieved from http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=1147 Bresnahan, M. J. Guan, X. Smith, S. W. Wang, X. & Edmundson, J. Z. (2010). Cultures of the soul: spiritual beliefs about organ donation in China and the United States. Chinese Journal of Communication, 3 (2), 133–146. Griffin, J. A. (2007). Organ donation. Retrieved from http://www.thehastingscenter.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/OrganDonationPrimer.pdf NHS Blood and Transplant. (2012). Organ donation and religious beliefs. Retrieved from https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/newsroom/fact_sheets/religious_leaflets/hindu_dharma_and_organ_donation/hindu_dharma_and_organ_donation.pdf Paul II, P. J. (2000). Organ donation: a catholic perspective. Retrieved from http://www.ccbi-utoronto.ca/documents/ODB.pdf The Ministry of Health Malaysia. (2011). Organ transplantation from the Islamic perspective. Retrieved from http://www.moh.gov.my/images/gallery/orga/edu/awam/Organ_TranIsmEN.pdf Read More