Living-Donor Organ Transplantation - A Statement from a Christian Point of View Today
A. Elsässer

The donation of a kidney by a living person seems to be justified from the Christian point of view. Having been rejected by Catholic Moral Theology still in 1954 as „a morally bad deed in se“, it is today looked upon as „a deed of Christian charity“ by the two great (i.e. Catholic and Protestant) churches and judged as a special contribution to the task of man in regard to creation and culture.

Certainly, concerning the fact that quite a lot of staff and financial resources are needed, and because of a certain tendency in man towards the obsession of being able to make and cope with anything on the one hand, and a changing attitude towards illness and death on the other hand, there is a basic social-ethical reservation towards transplantation medicine as such. Especially concerning the donation of a kidney by a living person the following must be thought about:
Firstly, explantation takes place on behalf of the interests of the recipient and not of the donor and implies at least a health risk for the latter. Secondly, the danger of a growing commercialisation or even direct trade with organs cannot be denied; and finally it may be doubted whether donors are actually able to understand all the necessary information and thus take a really autonomous decision. Nevertheless the donation of a kidney by a living person can be justified from the present ethical point of view when everything is done according to the best of one’s knowledge and belief in order to exclude general practice of abuse from the beginning, in order to obtain genuine informed consent from the donor, and in order to avoid all risks for him as far as this is possible. It is self-explanatory that also the recipient is not only necessarily involved with the medical procedures, but is also in the focus of psychosocial and juridical care.

Key words: Living organ donation, ethical aspects, commercialism, rewarded pain, rewarded gifting, altruism, autonomy, psychosocial care for the donor and recipient

Prof. Dr. A. Elsässer
Preith Römerstr. 33
D-85131 Pollenfeld b. Eichstätt
E-mail: Antonellus.Elsaesser@ku-eichstaett.de

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