Why may religious people have problems with transplant surgery?

Question

...and what do they believe about it?

For the benefit of others I meant to say like people's opinions - why do religious people have opposing opinions for this transplant surgery...

Answer 1

Some religions beleive that you should not receive parts of other bodies. Jehovah's witnesses won't even recieve blood transplants. Muslims believe that it is against God's laws to take organs from a person who has been declared dead, as that body now belongs to God. However, if a live person donated a kidney or part of a liver, that is acceptable, at least that is what a local Imam explained to me. It varies from religion to religion, although the majority have no issues with it.

Answer 2

I can't tell you why people hold whatever opinion they hold. It's more personal than imposed by a religion -- Example: Catholicism forbids contraceptives and many Catholics still use them. See? No matter what a religion says, if you're life is at stake you might go against the "orthodox view" fiorbidding a transplant.

Let's put that aside....it's a good question, but unless you're asking about a SPECIFIC religion, no one can comment.

What I can comment on is why there seems to be a little bit of personality swapping after a transplant. Buddhism is the only religious school that explains this, saying it's because the organ which is transplanted was still alive, and therefore still had the "chi" (life force) of the original donor.

Chi (life force) and consciousness are linked, so often the organ recipient developes thoughts, likes and conscious preferences of the original donor that became "stamped upon" their chi.

Answer 3

Hi!Not all religious people have problems with transplant surgery. If they have, it might be that it is conflicting with their religious beliefs. One more thing, their congregation has a big influence on their decision.
Each religion or sect has their own set of doctrines which may have a great impact on their personal principles and decisions. Take the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses. They have no qualms about medical treatment except for blood transfusion. Their members strongly believe against the procedure even if it would be life-saving or the only means of survival. They carry with them a card or a waiver of some sort that they present upon admission to a hospital.They'd rather die than submit to blood transfusion. I haven't encountered yet a specific religion or religious group that is anti-transplant surgery.

Answer 4

Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions but curiously they seem to have no objection to organ transplants. The UCSF group published a series of liver transplants without blood transfusion in Jehovah's Witnesses. Scientifically it does not make sense since the liver is full of cells which have a haematopoeitic origin.
Some people believe that the soul resides in the heart and so they do not accept the concept of brain death and refuse to donate the organs of next of kin who have died but whose organs are being kept perfused by ventilation and other life support.

Answer 5

The Baha'i Writings seem to allow transplant surgery.

For example: "There is nothing in the teachings which would forbid a Bahá'í to bequeath his eyes to another person or for a hospital; on the contrary it seems a noble thing to do..." (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 290)

Personally, I think it is a very important and selfless act to consider organ transplant. It is even more selfless to consider having a dead/dying loved one's organs "harvested" so others may live/see/hear, etc.

Answer 6

The only real reason someone would refuse an organ transplant is because they do not value their life enough. Everyone has the right to refuse medical treatment and to decide to give up the fight to live...and I have no problem with that when it is a quality of life issue. When I have run into the radically religious that are opposed to transplants, or more commonly blood transfusions, I have tried to reason with them to absolutely no avail. It makes no sense, for example, that Jehovah Witnesses will not allow you transfuse them with blood, but will allow you to transplant an organ in them. I get absolutely furious when the only answer I get (after logically pointing out the pitfalls of their beliefs) is that it's "God's will" or "His doctrine", or that blood and tissue are "sacred". I'm still a fairly young nurse...been out of school for 6 yrs now, so I have not yet totally accepted the futility of trying to reason with them. My co-workers tell me that it is nearly impossible to change the mind of people who are crazy enough to think that a God who created them wants to watch them suffer and die leaving their young children behind.

Answer 7

Transplant surgery was unknown in the age(s) that the bilble was thrown together so it is not covered at all, so what the religious types do is take existing bits and bend it to fit yet another modern day situation in whatever way the powers that be see fit.

Answer 8

By "religious people", your q. is quite broad. This religious people personally thinks it to be a form of cannibalism, which in (my) principle, is abominable. My feeling is there is a resurrection of those in God's memory, promised by God in His Word. Any desperate attempt to prolong ones life by this means would be temporary within the big picture.
Secondly, I have always reasoned that transplants are destined to become inequitable-a privilege reserved for those privileged to afford them. I also have been proven correct in anticipating the black market, dealing in abduction and murder to obtain this "commodity". I also expect a "Howard Houghs" type to "raise" a compatable donor for his future needs.
My belief is my own. It falls into a "grey area", concerning conscience, others of my faith feeling it is allowable according to their conscience. This is because God's word doesn't address this closely enough to specifically forbid or allow the acceptance of a medical transplant.
A transfusion of blood IS addressed in principle when the Bible specifies the prohibition against its ingestion by saying, "abstain from blood". (Acts 15: 28,29; Gen. 9: 3,4; Acts 15: 19,20; Leviticus 17: 13-16)
If a doctor were to tell a patient to "abstain" from alchohol, would he be abstaining if he were to ingest it through his veins?

Answer 9

Because they believe if God (or there god) Wants them to get better they will. So they think that getting a transplant surgery is going against Gods ( or there gods) wishes

Answer 10

Medicine is a science and religious is a belief system. The belief system is built on a system of rules that have been past down through generations that have not kept up with (or has resisted to keep up with) current technological advances in sociology and science.

As a result, you have have a multitude of good people who think they are doing the right thing in following their religion and belief system, and at the same time not taking advantage of the benefit of the advances of the scientific technological breakthroughs that medicine has to offer.