Posted on 12/14/2004 9:02:57 AM PST by MikeEdwards
"What an incredible story", I thought as I read the article. But it wasn’t published in a prestigious medical journal. Rather, it was an article in the New Yorker Magazine written by Ian Parker about about Zell Kravinsky. Zell had given away almost his entire 45 million dollar real estate fortune to charity. Then he donated a kidney to save a young stranger’s life. He had even considered donating his other kidney and subjecting himself to kidney dialysis to save another young life. This is Sacrifice with a capital S! Yet thousands of his fellow citizens refuse to donate organs even after their death to those who desperately need them.
Why did Kravinsky do it? He says people simply don’t understand math. He explains that he had one chance in four thousand of dying from the transplant operation. But his recipient faced certain death without it. So why should he put the value of his life at 4,000 times his?
This holiday season it’s time for us all to refresh our basic math. Currently, thousands of patients in this country are waiting for donated kidneys, others for heart and liver transplants. Thousands will die while waiting, during which time tens of thousands of healthy organs will be buried under the ground.
This is religious hypocrisy at its worst. A glaring example of extreme selfishness, particularly when the majority of religions support organ donation.
Pope John Paul II said, "With the advent of organ donation man has found a way to give of himself and his body so that others may continue to live."
Many Protestants and Lutherans favour organ donation. Judaism considers saving a life superior to maintaining the sanctity of the human body. . . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
Other than the well-known opposition of Jehovah's Witnesses to transplantation, what other faith traditions frown on the practice?
Yeah, Mike, it would seem to be a no brainer. Most people, it seems, fear that if they sign a donor card, doctors will cut them up before they're really dead.
To my knowledge, it's the usage of blood in the transplant process that they oppose. I've met a few of them with kidney transplants, so your statement is apparently false.
Perhaps there's been a new interpretation of the transplant rules in the Jehovah's Witness faith, since that long ago time. I've really not known anyone of that religion since the late '60s.
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