Organ Donation in Orthodox Christianity: Prohibited, Permitted, or Morally Required?

Post-mortem organ donation saves and improves the lives of many thousands of recipients each year. It is a concrete way to demonstrate love of neighbor and to carry forward Christ’s healing ministry. All this supports a strong presumption in favor of organ donation. Nevertheless, many Orthodox Christians have questions about organ donation that deserve answers, such as: Are organ donors really dead at the time of donation? Is it respectful to remove solid organs and tissue immediately after declaring death? Does organ donation interfere with Orthodox funeral and burial rituals? This paper engages these and related issues. It concludes by reviewing six statements by Eastern Orthodox synods of bishops on organ donation, which generally teach that organ donation is not obligatory, but is good when it is voluntary and done as act of charity, which avoids commodifying the human body.

This article is based on a presentation to the 2024 annual OCAMPR conference.