For the past couple months, it’s been a real eye opening experience learning about brain death and organ donation. From watching Dr. Eble’s speech to Texas Right to Life to the recent HHS investigation results released just this week, we have found a multitude of resources from journalists, doctors, vloggers, and bloggers presenting information and facts about brain death and the questionable practices of organ procurement organizations (OPO’s). There’s a LOT of information to sift through and this website presents links to all this information without any distractions. However, there is one fact we feel compelled to write a post about that we have already run into, and that is the following: the Catholic Church approves of organ donation once a person has died. The first part of that statement is what everyone hears, it’s the second part that everyone seems to forget. Let us give an example.
We presented some of the information on this site, particularly the facts about brain death, to a group of Catholic Pro-Lifers. The majority of them were shocked and appalled, but some of the members wanted to counter the information we presented by reminding us of the Catholic Church’s approval of organ donation. We tried to make it clear in our presentation that the issue wasn’t the Church’s approval, but the diagnosis of brain death is the main problem. Unfortunately, people hear what they want to hear, that’s just part of our human nature.
Ever since we gave this presentation, we have been given the same argument from other folks that the Catholic Church approves of organ donation. These are well intentioned Catholics, and they think appealing to God’s authority should automatically shut down any debate. We DO NOT question the moral authority of the Catholic Church and we accept the Church’s approval of organ donation. BUT THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE. And continually giving this argument about Church approval, without dealing with the information and facts around questionable death diagnosis (brain death for example), is nothing more than a combination of the red herring and appeal to authority fallacies.
In fact, these are the exact tactics the Harvard Medical School Ad Hoc Committee used in 1968 to make it seem like the Catholic Church approves of their made up brain death/irreversible coma diagnosis being equal to true death. The committee’s report published in 1968 in JAMA contains quotes from Pope Pius XII’s 1957 address “The Prolongation of Life.” Here is a screenshot showing the relevant section from the JAMA article:
Did you see the manipulation? The quotes from Pope Pius XII make it seem like he (and thereby the Catholic Church) is basically saying they leave it up to the physicians to determine when actual death occurs. Then they sneak in the line “Some have suggested that the moment of death is the moment when irreparable and overwhelming brain damage occurs.” Then the last sentence presents the “church’s view that a time comes when resuscitative efforts should stop and death be unopposed.” This is propaganda, because Pope Pius XII’s address has nothing to do with brain death.
First of all, his address was presented to a focused group of anesthesiologists. Second, he was addressing 3 questions brought up by Dr. Bruno Haid regarding the medical morals of resuscitation. So trying to use Pius XII’s address as an authoritative statement on the Catholic Church’s position on irreversible coma/brain death is mis-information, plain and simple.
Lastly, Pius XII’s address does actually touch on the subject of death. And he makes it clear that if there is ANY doubt a person is dead, it must be presumed that “life remains . . . and it is necessary to prove with certainty that it has been lost.” Here is a screenshot of the relevant section from the address:
Given the amount of information presented on this site regarding the current practices in determining death and organ harvesting, we would argue there is more than reasonable (insoluble) doubt in the current practices of determining when death occurs using brain death and other criteria. Organ donation is a good and noble practice, but killing people to get organs for the “greater” good of saving lives amounts to utilitarianism, reducing people to body parts that can and should be harvested. May God have mercy on those who think the ends justify the means.
organ donation exposed 