Are your kidneys available to me? - Fifth in a series

By Luca Borghi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Are your kidneys available to me – or to the pastor or friend in their 60s – or to a child on dialysis, like the little boy in the picture?

If you have signed your driver’s license then you can say, “Yes.” But would you, if you are a healthy adult, donate a kidney to help a fellow human live longer?

And what if you were asked to give an opinion, to help another person make a decision? It’s best to know in advance what you would answer.

Up to this post, we have reviewed position statements by churches on organ donation, noting or providing links to web pages that show:

• All religions and Christian churches generally are in favor of organ donation
• Christian church statements do not differentiate between the living and dead donor
• Many churches see organ donation as a matter of individual conscience
• There are altruistic living donors of kidneys and many kidney sellers, mostly found among the poor and ignorant in the world.

We have also noted that church position statements should distinguish between living and presumably dead donors. I realize that using the word “presumably” adds another layer to work through, but Christians need to understand that the current definition of death is debatable, and most Bible-believing Christians would not accept it. We believe that death occurs when people breathe their last. However, once that occurs, organs cannot be used for transplantation. This is a topic for a different blog series.

Our country may be moving toward a program of payment for organs from live donors, requiring a change in current law.

Would you expect your church to take a stand for or against this? Would you sell or buy a kidney? This is a new dilemma from whether you would donate one.

How would you advise your church, if you were on a committee to write a position statement?

Here are some topics to look at, to get the facts and insights needed for a personal viewpoint:

• How do kidneys from around the world find their way to the operating tables of the USA? Would this practice end if we have a paid donor program here? Would the Donor Bill of Rights help?
• How would changing our laws to permit payment for human organs affect our society?
• Would payment for organs be supported or opposed in Christian doctrine?
• What types of questions in the Christian life are bonafide matters for individual conscience?

These questions are different from the ones asked by the health authorities, who want to know:

• How many kidney donors are needed to supply the current demand and what is the demand curve?
• What are current and projected costs for dialysis, and who pays?
• How can we get more donors?

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