You may be familiar with the practice of holding Blood Donation camps at parishes during the Holy Week. By donating blood, we try to emulate our Lord who shed blood for us, thereby showing that love is stronger than death. “This is my blood…which is poured out for many.” (Mark 14:24)
We all know that donating blood serves to save lives such as of those undergoing major surgery; who are victims of accidents or burn; or are anaemic. Blood is a living donation (a gift that one makes while still alive) and also a life-giving donation.
But friend, have you ever considered organ and/or body donation? This is something you decide upon while you are still alive. While your organs become a gift at once to several needy people after you pass from this earthly life, a body donation helps greatly improve the quality of human life in the long run. (Did you know that as a matter of fact, the medical students who would soon be doctors who treat us, do not really have enough human bodies from which to study anatomy?)
In fact, for us Catholics, who believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist (the institution of which is celebrated on Maundy Thursday), these would be a sterling way to ‘make real’ our love for Christ. Imagine if we could make our own, the very words of Jesus: “This is my body, which is given up for you.” Luke 22:19. We would actually be doing it in remembrance of our Lord.(Luke 22:19 again!)
Several years ago, I signed a Living Will donating my organs (eyes, kidney, liver, heart and lungs) after death through the Mohan Foundation (www.mohanfoundation.org). I am presently re-working a document by which I pledge to convey my body to Madras Medical College after my death for medical learning or research purposes.
If God would give me a chance that my living will could be carried out (there are some legal and medical conditions to it), I would consider myself so honoured. And I would like to share this idea with you during this Holy season. If you are interested to get a format of these documents I mention, I will be glad to share them with you or help you write one for yourself.
Here are a few pieces of information that may motivate you make this Christian call:
1. Our Pope Benedict XVI registered as an organ donor in 1999, prior to becoming Pope. “To donate one’s organs is an act of love that is morally licit, so long as it is free and spontaneous,” he told Zenit International News Agency. (see also http://www.zenit.org/article-24191?l=english)
2. Pope John Paul II reinforced the Church’s support of organ donations. In 2000, when he addressed the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society, the pope repeated his words from Evangelium Vitae, regarding “the donation of organs, performed in an ethically acceptable manner, with a view to offering a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who sometimes have no other hope” (#86). (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2000/jul-sep/doc...)
3. For Christians, burial is not the only form of disposal of dead bodies. The Catholic Church allows for cremation as well. We can infer from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2301) that so long as we do not deny faith in the resurrection of the body, cremation or donation of body for scientific research is permitted. (http://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_comp...)
4. The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 enacted by the Government of India legalizes making free organ donations in India. (http://demotemp286.nic.in/LAw%20Codes/acxt_2%5CTransplantation%20of%20Hu...)
I close finally with a poem on Body Donation penned by Bhaskar Venugopal, a friend and a Brahmin convert:
THE GLORIOUS BODY
On one dark Friday, his body hung on the cross
People stood around weeping, mourning their loss
They slowly turned around and began to leave
The events of the day, they could hardly believe
Then came a rich man to claim his body
A rock was hewn and a grave was made ready
The humble king who had no crown or throne
Was now laid to rest in a borrowed tomb
The governor ordered for the tomb to be sealed
Fearing that the body his disciples could steal
So the soldiers rolled a stone and kept a close watch
A plan so secure, no earthly power could quash
The Sabbath passed by, a day of solemn rest
Time had arrived for his claims to be put to test
Before the break of day, the women lost their calm
They ran to the grave with spices and balm
They wondered how they could enter the tomb
For there was none to help them roll back the stone
But when they arrived, they saw the stone rolled aside
And there sat an angel arrayed in a robe so white
“He has risen” the angel declared
And they fled from the place, alarmed and terrified
Now there was no need to embalm a body
That had passed from death to glory
One day our bodies will perish and die
But in heaven, forever, we will remain alive
Earth’s loss will become heaven’s gain
But our earthly bodies will rot in vain
You could choose to seal your grave with a stone
Or be known through the ages as one with an empty tomb
Donate your body, when you enter glory!
Picture: Shot at the Vatican Museums, Aug 2005
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