Sacred heart or spare part?

Our Archbishop, Dr. Morgan, managed to obtain the front page headline in yesterday’s Western Mail which proclaimed – next to a happy picture of Katherine Jenkins in casual wear – Church in Wales provokes organs donations outrage. ‘Church’ and ‘outrage’ all in one caption no doubt made it a sure cert for the front page.   Now I thought it was quite OK for churches to donate their obsolete organs to grateful (or unimaginative) recipients, but this is not what the article was about.

The Archbishop was referring to the Welsh Government’s stated aim of introducing legislation which would presume a dying person consents to their body parts being donated for organ transplant – unless the patient has expressly opted-out.  If passed, this would make Wales the first nation within the UK to legislate for ‘presumed consent’, just as shortly we will be the first to charge 5p for plastic bags.

I cannot help but feel that the Assembly has grasped both plastic bags and organ donation as ‘easy targets’ to achieve and add to their public CV, while areas such as education are proving so difficult to handle.

Be that as it may, the Archbishop’s address to the Church in Wales Governing Body highlighted his concerns as to whether this area was an appropriate path for the State to tread: “Giving organs is the most generous act of self-giving imaginable,” he is quoted as saying, “but it has to be a choice that is freely embraced, not something the state assumes.  Put more crudely, it turns volunteers into conscripts. Presumed consent is not really consent at all, merely the assumption that there are no objections.”  He warned of the danger of the state acting in a coercive manner, putting relatives of a dying person under pressure because it would feel as if they are being asked to decide about the disposal of state assets.

Well, there was quite a backlash from people whom the Western Mail prodded for a response, especially people who themselves have received an organ transplant or are waiting for one.  Predictably, someone called the Archbishop’s comments not just “unchristian” but “very unchristian” and adding, “The Church in Wales should not involve itself in something as sensitive as this.”  Another person was quoted as complaining, “They talk about human rights, but what about our human rights?  The right to a transplant and a better quality of life.”

Now forgive me if you must, but it is news to me that anyone has a right to receive a transplant; and what do we mean if we say that people have a right to a better quality of life?  Better than what? Better than what that person is currently experiencing, or better than the boss of Barclays, or better than a slum dweller in Nairobi?

The clinching statement in opposition came from a spokesman for the Welsh Assembly who said, “Research shows the Welsh public over-whelmingly backs our proposals.”  Well, that’s an end to it, then, isn’t it?  Who dares argue against the majority of public opinion!
Laying aside the concerns of people that removal of organs involves invading the body before death has occurred, the Archbishop has helpfully put into the public arena a challenge to simplistic, utilitarian attitudes.  And he has caught Cardiff Bay by surprise.
I will be interested to see if, and how, the debate develops.  I am looking forward to hearing your views also.  Over the years when the topic of bodily organ donation has come up, I have often wondered how it relates to what we say each week in the Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the body.”  I am not concerned about God’s ability to raise a body which has a kidney or liver or even heart missing, but I am concerned that the current debate is so anthropo-centric.  In declaring our belief in the resurrection of the dead, we are not saying that at the end of all things we will regenerate ourselves like a Dr. Who; in fact, we will do nothing: we will be powerless because we will be dead.  It is God who will raise the body to give it resurrection life like Christ’s.

We, then, become not owners of our bodies like car owners who swap spare parts, but we are properly stewards of our bodies rather like we are stewards of creation.  The question is, “How should I rightly use my body which God has given me and which one day he will raise from the dead?”  Many Christians may want to argue that organ donation fits in with this responsibility, but I would like to hear it argued from a theo-centric perspective rather than the usual, “it’s mine, I’ll do what I like with it!” 

Andrew Loat

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