A follow-up question from my Ask-a-Priest on 10/14/07 about organ donation: If a person is determined to be “brain dead” yet is dependent on life support (ventilator) and has no evidence of having biological function without ventilator (then truly and completely dying), is it approved by the Magisterium to open this biologically-not-completely-dead person to harvest organs and cease life support. The issue being “brain death” is not “complete death”…
I appreciate the follow-up and a chance to clarify and to go deeper into the Church’s teaching on end-of-life issues. I previously encouraged organ donation, but asserted that we can never end someone’s life by taking their organs. We can’t do evil to achieve good. I said that, “There must be a clear medical declaration of death (such as total brain death) before critical organs (such as the heart) can be removed. We must always respect life!”
I see you are concerned about what is “complete death” and question whether “brain death” qualifies since even though the brain might be completely dead, the heart and other organs can be kept going. This is a current debate, one that even Pope Benedict XVI was not too sure on, so he consulted the Pontifical Academy of Sciences who convened a working group of 20 of the world’s top neurologists from around the world along with other Vatican officials to study this very issue. Their conclusion, made public by CNS on Sept. 15, 2006, was to reaffirm previous conclusions and to reaffirm Pope John Paul II’s statement that "the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity (in the cerebrum, cerebellum and brain stem) if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of anthropology." In other words, total brain death qualifies as “complete death” for a human being. This means that life-support systems may be used to keep the organs in good condition until they may be removed for transplant. If the life support systems were not there, the body would begin decomposing. Let me be clear that the brain death must be total. Thus, those in a permanent vegetative state or comas (where part of the brain is still living) are considered “alive” and cannot have their organs harvested.
Some continue to debate all this, but for now the Magisterium has spoken that organ donation is permitted from a body with total brain death. If some are uncomfortable with this, they are not obligated to do so, but only to follow their conscience.
-Fr. Greg
