On Mother’s Day, I received a text from a friend asking what the Church teaches about donating your body to science. When I responded that the Church does not have a problem with it, she further asked does the Church prefer “whole-body burial” or cremation. This prompted me to ask if there was something going on in her life that I should be aware of, to which she replied, “no, just Mother’s Day dinner discussion with my family.” Now, I am happy to know that there are families out there like mine who sometimes take their dinner conversations to a “different,” let’s call it more accurately “dark” place. However, these are questions which come up a lot, and I figured this would be a good week to write about organ and body donation (because I haven’t had a chance to read anything this week).
In terms of donating your body to science, this question was answered by the Vatican decades ago under Pius XII. St. John Paul II elaborated on what is found in the Catechism, in his “Address to participants in the Ninth General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life” in 2003 by stating, “The Church respects and supports scientific research when it has a genuinely human orientation, avoiding any form of instrumentalization or destruction of the human being and keeping itself free from the slavery of political and economic interests.” More recently, in October 2014, Pope Francis met with the Transplantation Committee for the Council of Europe and called the act of organ donation “a testimony of love for our neighbor.” This is a complex issue but both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis emphasize that organ donation and the donation of the human body for medical research are good acts which serve the Common Good. However, both also stated that for this to be a morally good act, the person who is donating must give consent and should not donate in order to seek financial profit. Lastly, once the remains are returned to the family, the family ought to have a funeral mass and proper Christian burial of the deceased. This is a very broad overview of the topic, but is another reminder for all of us to seek the teachings of the Church, and not simply rely on “what we think the Church teaches.” Hope everyone enjoyed this mini-lesson, next week we should return to my usual sports and books.