BEIRUT: Organ donation and
transplants are encouraged by the church and Islamic Shariah, so long as they
take place voluntarily, two leading Muslim and Christian scholars said during a
lecture held Monday at the American University of Beirut.
The lecture, which took place at the
AUB Medical Center, brought together Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, president of the
Mabarrat Society and Father Abdo Abou Kasem, director of the Catholic Center of
Information, to discuss the ethical and religious perspectives on organ
donation.
Thalia Arawi, the director of the
Salim al-Hoss Bioethics & Professionalism Program at AUB, which organized
the lecture, said the scholars had been invited to discuss the issue after
recent developments in the fields of organ donation and transplants introduced
new hope for the treatment of serious diseases.
“Yet, this promise has been accompanied
by several ethical issues, and religious opinions on these matters have often
been solicited,” she said.
Both religious scholars said that
organ donation and transplants are encouraged by the church and Islamic Shariah
as long as they are done with full consent and awareness of the potential
risks.
Sayyed Fadlallah said that Islam
promotes giving and sacrifice in general, adding that the recipients’ or
donors’ religion or race should not affect the process, to which Father Abou
Kasem agreed.
Fadlallah added that Islam also
approves of doctors who perform organ donation or organ transplant operations.
However, Abou Kasem said the church has reservations on the donation of certain
organs, and forbids the donation and transplant of the brain and of reproductive
organs.
He voiced hope that preachers would
raise awareness about organ donation, and encouraged schools and universities
to do the same. “Organ donation should be encouraged because it helps humans
forgo their selfish nature,” he said. “In the end, the body disintegrates, and
the earthly body stays in the ground, while we are given a new body in the
afterlife.”
Abou Kasem also noted that the church
categorically bans the sale and purchase of organs, while the issue is still a
debate within Islam.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Feb-21/164049-religious-scholars-encourage-organ-donation-and-transplants.ashx#axzz1n0z4CCop
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