Organ Donations

Living Donors

So far, we have considered clearly dead donors and questionable dead donors. We will now return to considering the different types of living donors. This limits donation to those organs or tissues the body can replace or do without. These include blood, bone marrow, bone, kidneys, sperm and eggs. Sperm and eggs donation is an important topic that we will not deal with at this time.

First, we will consider kidney donations from living donors. God created our bodies with two kidneys. One kidney can usually be removed without an adverse impact on the donor's health. This allows the donor kidney to be obtained under optimum circumstances, while the recipient is being prepared to receive it. The amount of time the kidney is without blood supply can be kept short and increase the possibility of good results. The greater the genetic similarity between the donor and the recipient, the greater the rate of success and the less likely the new organ will be rejected. Therefore, the best living donors are often closely related to the recipient.

Bone donation from living donors is somewhat different from a kidney donation. Bone is not taken from someone who is well. Usually, bone is a leftover from hip or knee surgery. The bone is tested, frozen and kept. Rejection of the bone is not a concern, as it is not the living cells that are needed, but the calcium matrix on which the cells of the recipient can begin to grow new bone.

Bone marrow transplants and blood transfusions present little risk to the donor.

Some Considerations in Regard to Donors⤒🔗

There are some things a Christian should consider when transplants from living donors are considered. The principle of a Christian taking the risk and donating a kidney can be supported. It is important to consider the likelihood of whether the kidney will survive and be of benefit to the recipient. Just as the deacons who help the needy, do not indiscriminately give these funds away, I think similar Biblical principles should be applied to the use of a donated kidney. We are to be good stewards of our all gifts, that they honour Christ and promote the life and growth of the church.

We may want to ask ourselves some questions. Should the recipient not be concerned about where the organ or tissue comes from? Should we not be concerned whether the organ or tissue was freely given or the result of coercion? With blood transfusions we expect the authorities to minimize the risk of using infected blood, but should we not concern ourselves with where the organ or tissue gift came from? Of course, we should never forget that ultimately the donor's gift is a gift from God.

Fetal Tissue←⤒🔗

The donors, just mentioned, remained alive in the process of donating an organ. The next group of donors has been clearly and deliberately killed. I'm referring to the use of tissue or organs from aborted babies. The world calls it fetal cells and fetal tissue. They would like us to think that dissecting a person called a living fetus is less repulsive than dissecting a living but unborn baby.

For the last forty years there has been so called scientific research on living tissue from fetuses.¹  In North America, in Canada and the United States, significant human fetal tissue research is taking place. The public became more aware of this about seven or eight years ago when the news reported that fetal brain cells were being experimentally implanted into the brains of people with Parkinson's disease. This is presented as good news, a potential cure for a terrible degenerative disease.

To obtain such a cure, experiments with living fetal bone marrow, pancreas, liver and nerve cells are being done in laboratories. Various fetal cells have been transplanted into various animals and the results are studied. Numerous studies have also been done with transplants of fetal cells into humans. Experimental transplantation with fetal pancreas cells into people with diabetes is about twenty years old. These insulin-producing cells have been reproduced in the laboratory. Similar studies have experimented with fetal liver cells to replace bone marrow. Other studies are done with implanting fetal brain cells to seek to cure a variety of degenerative brain disorders.²

Originally, the fetal tissue was treated as being no different than other abandoned surgical waste material.³  More recently, in the United States policies have been set and laws have been passed defining when fetal tissues can be used. This has not stopped the experimentation. I believe that it has only resulted in giving the use of fetal tissue more credibility to the public.

It is said that abortions are happening anyway. If use of the tissue does not result in more abortions, it is not that bad, is it? The fact is that it is not done independently of abortions. One study aimed at asking people who were seeking an abortion to sign up to donate fetal tissue.⁴

Supporters of fetal tissue transplantation believe that a decision to undergo a legal elective abortion can be separated from the subsequent use of the tissue. In 1988 most members of the NIH research panel reviewing this issue reported that they regarded it highly unlikely that a woman would be encouraged to make a decision to abort based on knowledge that the fetus would be used for fetal tissue transplants. A 1995 study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal questioned 266 women randomly selected from an urban family practice. The study showed that women who would consider an abortion thought they would be more likely to have one if they knew that the fetus would be used for transplantation.⁵

Knowing this, how can the people who perform these experiments live with themselves? And how can the patients accept these treatments? Knowing this, should there not be a more significant outcry from Christians against such practices?

Stem Cells←⤒🔗

There have been reports in the news recently about the possible use of stem cells to grow organ tissue or even organs to use for transplant. Most cells in our body contain all the information needed to describe everything in our body. Most of our cells have the bulk of the information turned off except what is needed to describe its own particular cell type. Therefore, liver cells remain liver cells; skin cells remain skin cells, etc. Stem cells are cells that are able to turn into a number of different cells. We have such cells in our bone marrow. They can replicate and turn into the many different types of cells found in our blood. If we can find a way to turn the right genes on and off, in theory, we could cause these stem cells to form into various types of cells in our body. The dream of scientists is to grow organs. If we could grow organs from our own cells we would not have to worry about rejection.

This sounds exciting, but the research is only in its infancy. I think it may result in some tissue types being grown, but to grow organs, which are made up of many different tissue types, presents many obstacles to overcome. I suspect that the obstacles are too great, but some amazing things have been accomplished in medical science.

As we consider the research, it is important to realize that a lot of stem cell research is done on fetal cells, rather than bone marrow stem cells. This is because the ultimate stem cells are the very early fetal cells that have not yet differentiated into the various cell types and organ types. It is much more likely that organs could be grown by cloning humans, using very early fetal cells, than by using more mature stem cells. The way some sheep have recently been cloned is by taking the DNA out of an adult sheep cell and replacing the DNA of a very early fetal sheep cell with the adult DNA. This is technically possible with humans. As mentioned already, such research with human fetal cells must be condemned.

Animal Donors←⤒🔗

Having looked at the moral concerns associated with questionable dead donors and the use of fetal tissue, it would seem sensible to look for different solutions, and that is what medical research is doing. Animal donors appear to be a good solution. The Bible tells us that man is given dominion over the animals and may use them to supply his needs. In Acts 10 it is recorded that God demonstrated to Peter that any of the animals of creation could be used for internal use. It says, "kill and eat ''. Considered in association with the precept of Noah in Genesis 9, which says, "But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat''⁶ this suggests that we should kill the animals before eating them. Another question is whether the use of live animal parts, especially with their blood in them, is honouring to God. Should we not be cautious in supporting the use of living animal organs without seriously considering this question before God?

An animal part that is commonly used in humans is pig heart valves. These are not kept alive and they have no blood supply. No drugs are needed to keep our bodies from rejecting them. The use of pig heart valves does not challenge the precepts of Noah.

Another item in the news is the development of pigs to act as donors. Leviticus 19:19 warns against the intermingling of distinct plant or animal kinds by cross breeding. This is part of the Mosaic law and no longer in effect. But may its principal not still be relevant? Man is also forbidden to have sexual relations with animals.⁷  I believe this law pri­marily addresses the immoral desires of men's hearts, but it also affirms the creation order set by God, that each plant or animal reproduces after its kind. Generally, transplantation of animal parts in humans would not involve cross breed­ing. Therefore, I do not believe that objection is valid.

The problems associated with using animal parts in humans highlights how God has set the species apart. "Several formidable obstacles must be overcome in transplanting. These include the effectiveness of the animal donor heart as a heart in matching the specific donor pig heart to a specific host human physiology. It also includes the possibility of the donor heart carrying an animal-oriented disease into the human beings. It also involves the surgery and its aftermath of hyperacute rejection and histocompatibility rejection."⁸ If, ethically, animal organs can be used, it will likely be years before this will be practical. If the medical technology continues to advance in this direction it would make sense for the church to have studied the use of animal organs from an ethical point of view before it becomes a practical reality.

Other←⤒🔗

There is also the use of anencephalic babies as donors and the use of cord blood or placentas taken at the time of birth. We have not exhausted the various uses and experiments made with organs and tissues. But the aforementioned will give us plenty of food for thought.

This completes my presentation of the facts of organ donations and the concerns I have about the direction the medical and scientific world is headed. I trust you can appreciate why I am concerned and why we have to become knowledgeable about this topic. May God give us His wisdom and guidance if and when we should have to make decisions in regard to organ and tissue transplants.