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POPE-TRANSPLANT Nov-7-2008 (850 words) xxxi
Sale, trafficking of organ donation must be condemned, says pope
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While organ donation is a generous act of love, the sale and trafficking of organs is abominable and must be condemned, said Pope Benedict XVI.
"Tissue and organ transplants represent a great advance of medical science and are certainly a sign of hope for the many people who suffer from serious and sometimes critical medical conditions," he said.
However, the scarce number of vital organs available for transplant is "dramatically real" as seen by the long waiting lists of people whose only hope for survival is "linked to meager supplies which do not correspond to actual needs," he said Nov. 7 in a private audience with some 500 participants attending a Vatican-sponsored gathering on organ donation.
The Nov. 6-8 congress, titled "A Gift for Life: Considerations on Organ Donation," was sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life, the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations and Italy's National Transplant Center.
The pope thanked the medical community for its work, which has allowed many people to overcome critical conditions and to be given back the joy of life. But the efforts of doctors and researchers in this field also depend on "the generosity and altruism of those who donated their organs," he said.
The pope underlined how important ethical considerations are at a time when the demand for organs far outweighs the available supply.
The human body can never be considered a mere object, he said, "otherwise the logic of the market would have the upper hand."
"Respect for the dignity of the person and protection of his or her individual identity" must be a priority, he said. That means those who choose to donate nonvital organs should do so only if it will not jeopardize their health or cause disabling mutilation or death, he said. The procedure also always must be "morally valid and proportional" to the good sought for the recipient, he said.
The buying and selling of organs and the adoption of "discriminatory and utilitarian criteria" that prevent equal access to receiving organs are morally illicit and unacceptable, he said.
Organ trafficking, which targets innocent people and children, must be "decisively condemned as abominable" and must prompt the scientific and medical communities to band together "to refuse it as an unacceptable practice." The same must be said for the creation and destruction of human embryos for therapeutic reasons, he added.
Informed consent by the relatives of patients who have died remains key to make sure organ donations remain a gift and "are not interpreted as acts of coercion or exploitation," he said.
"It is worthwhile to recall, nonetheless, that vital organs cannot be removed except from a dead body, which also has its own dignity that should be respected," he said.
Pope Benedict said science has made much progress recently in being able to ascertain the death of an individual.
He asked that any new developments in methods determining death "receive the agreement of the entire scientific community" so that everyone may feel certain about these advancements and new criteria.
The pope reminded his audience that in organ transplants "there can never be the least suspicion of arbitrariness" and in cases where death is not certain "the principle of precaution must prevail."
One congress participant, Dr. Alessandro Nanni Costa, director of Italy's National Transplantation Center, told journalists the pope reaffirmed the current criteria used today by the world's medical professionals in determining the death of a patient.
He said the pope's call for scientific consensus was aimed at agreement concerning new methods or criteria regarding the determination of death.
While the methods of ascertaining brain death may change, the concept of brain death -- the complete, irreversible loss of function of the brain cerebrum and brain stem -- always will remain the definition of death, said Dr. Francis Delmonico, a surgeon at Harvard Medical School and head of medical affairs for the Transplantation Society.
Delmonico told reporters the most important part of the pope's speech was its denunciation of organ trafficking and insistence that there never be an exchange of money for organs.
He said currently "slums of the world are targeted to be the suppliers of organs for the rich." Allowing the poor to be exploited in such a way "destroys the fabric of society," he said.
The poor who are tempted to sell nonvital organs "still wind up poor and with one less kidney," he added.
In 1999, when Italy was debating new legislation on organ donation, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, told an Italian newspaper he was a card-carrying organ donor.
"Donating one's own organs is a morally licit gesture of love, as long as it is a free and spontaneous act," he told the paper.
He said he had joined an organ-donor association several years earlier and always carried with him a card stating his willingness to donate his organs.
Church teaching states that the gift of organ donation after death is noble and meritorious and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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