Transplant Surgery

Some religious people have problems with transplant of organs from a dead person. They have this belief because of some moral grounds about deciding when a person is dead. For example hearts are removed from a person when they are still beating. Christian believes that transplants would usurp the role of God which is a great sin, when the organs are removed. Moreover, it would interfere in the sacredness of the life. All major organs such as heart, liver, lung, kidneys etc are the individual gifts, so cannot be transplanted to another person. Most Muslims hold this view because the Shari’ah teaches that “nothing should be removed from the body after death.”

On the other hand, some religious people have problems with some practices related to living organs being paid for. They believe this could encourage poor people to sell their organs to overcome poverty. This could even lead to organ trading. Christians oppose this because the Bible teaches that the poor should not be exploited. The Jewish Tenakh also bans the exploitation of poor. The Jews only allow transplant surgery if the organs are from a fellow Jew. Most Muslims also have this view because the Quran says that “God created the body of a person and moving organs is to act as Allah” which is regarded as a great sin, as only Allah has the right to give and take life.

Some religious people totally oppose the practice of transplant surgeries. They hold this view because transplant surgeries ignore the sanctity of life and tampers with God’s gift. The body is sacred and thus its structure must be untouched. It would be against God’s will to alter the balance of his creations. The Jews believe that transplant surgeries breaks the mitzvoth related to the sanctity of life. They also believe that if the transplants are used from a non Jewish source it would affect the Jewishness of a person as being a Jew is passed on by blood and motherhood. The other lobby of Jews also point out that God created each organ for a specific person and thus they shouldn’t be swapped around.