What does the Bible say
about organ donation?

Q. Is there anything in the Old or New Testaments regarding either donating or receiving organs? Is it against God's will and a sin?

(Submitted by: B. B.)

A. Jesus, our Lord and Master, gave us a sense of the worth of body parts:

"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. " (Matthew 5:29-30, NIV throughout)

The apostle Paul, who was taught personally by our Savior, gave us instructions about the uses of our bodies:

"Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;  and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness." (Romans 6:13)

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. " (Romans 12:1)

Jesus also gave us this definition of love:

"My command is this:  Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13)

The donation of the organs of the body so that others might live would, in my humble opinion, be the donation of one's "life" (the organs must still be alive when donated) to his "friends". For instance, some people donate one kidney to siblings or parents where the tissue match is so close. My research has found no other types of instruction for the disposition of the bodies of those who die.

The "rest of the dead" will be resurrected with physical bodies, after the millennial reign of 1,000 years by Jesus, but their bodies long before, in some cases centuries and millennia before, were decomposed and scattered to the winds. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended (Revelation 20:5)

I suppose one could find reasons not to be an organ donor, but it should not be based upon the myth that when resurrected, one's body might be short the organs donated.

God said to the first man - the one He created:

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;  for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:19)

Organ donation is, of course, a personal choice each of us has to make but a good case can be made that allowing them to be used in keeping other people alive, or to allow them to see, or allow them to be more healthy, is better than allowing them to turn to dust.