Through my study I have become much more concerned about the moral problems surrounding organ donation. I found that the ethics of organ donation and of the declaration of death have a prominent place in the secular forum. Sadly, I did not find much from the churches relating this issue to the Word of God. Jewish and Catholic views were much more easily found than Protestant. The National Kidney Foundation published a list commenting on the position of each major religion on organ donation. Although this information is from 1979 it is still used today. This list claims that Lutheran churches endorse organ donation; that Presbyterian churches encourage and endorse organ and tissue donation and "they respect individual conscience and a person's right to make decisions regarding his or her own body."¹ This ought to alarm us when we consider that "we are not our own, we are bought with a price and belong to our Saviour Jesus Christ."² We do not have a right to do whatever we want with our own body.

Any decision about what to do with our body must be solidly based on the Word of God, for it "has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness."³ The Presbyterian Church of Canada's official response to organ donation dates from 1969. It accepts the declaration of brain death given by a neurologist without any appeal to Scripture, saying, "From the aspect of the donor, there seems to be no moral problem but supply." With respect to deciding who gets an organ, they say, "this decision, we feel, is left in competent hands," meaning the physicians.⁴ Consider the decision-making process used by physicians in respect to organ donation. A 1989 survey of 195 physicians and nurses working in intensive care units and other settings where organ donors might be found, shows there is considerable uncertainty over exactly how brain death is defined.⁵ Physicians continue to debate the diagnosis of brain death.⁶ More recently there is increasing pressure to loosen the definition of brain death. Physicians have started the questionable practice of using the term "non-beating heart" donors ("non-beating heart donors" will be explained later). Physicians are involved in abortions and are using fetuses in transplant research.

In order to respond, we need to become more aware of what is happening. To emphasize the need for awareness, I quote the introduction to a paper titled The Slippery Slope, by Chatham, Ontario, Family Physician, Dr. John Stronks. He writes,

Not so long ago I was having a conversation with an obstetrician who performs abortions, sharing my excitement about the birth of apparently healthy twins at a gestational age of 28 weeks. He responded with disdain, asserting that we have gone too far in trying to save such infants. After all, what if they grow up to have a learning disorder, he mused.

Earlier in my career I was taken aback when asked by 13 and 14 year olds for contraception. Now I take the fact of teenage sexual activity for granted. Recently, I was taken aback again when a foursome of teenagers presented me with a question pertaining to the sex act. Will there come a time when I take the fact of group sex for granted as well?

We have witnessed in our society a rapid progression from the legalization of divorce to the realization of widespread family breakdown. Feminism has yielded to witchery and other sorts of new age religion. Homosexuality has come out of the closet and now is in the forefront of the legislative agenda, even to the extent that some are advocating the legalization of homosexual adoptions and the recognition of pedophilia as normative. We have witnessed the liberalization of abortion laws only to be faced with the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of infants annually and emergence of issues such as euthanasia, assisted suicide, and mercy killing. Just a few years ago government run lotteries were introduced; now gaming has become big business for government and a normal source of entertainment for many Canadians, even for many Christians. What was once pornography is now standard fare for advertisers and movie makers. And while young children are indulging in their parents' collection of pornographic videos, we still wonder why we now almost daily hear news reports on serial sexual predators.

This is a sad, but true reflection on Canadian society. And it is disturbing, especially for Christians who are feeling increasingly repressed as a minority voice in the shaping of Canadian society. Like never before, Canadian Christians have been challenged to think about moral issues, to search the Scriptures for relevant insights, to formulate positions and responses. To this end, it is my desire, as a Christian physician to share some of my experiences and insights.⁷

I echo the words of Dr Stronks. It is within this society that we must face pressure to come up with increasing numbers of viable organ donors.

Dr. Stronks goes on to consider how our society and Christians have become so accepting of this ever-growing tide of immoral action. It is the result of the destructive, progressive and aggressive nature of sin. If we want to bring the true light of the Gospel to the world, we must resist the temptation to compromise God's standards and we must reject the flawed morality the world presents. To keep from falling into this temptation, we must not allow sin to lead us down the destructive, progressive path of accepting the immoral as moral.