Are Organ Transplants Permissible?

Surgical techniques to transplant a cornea, a kidney, a heart, or some other organ from a live or recently deceased donor to a needy recipient are of very recent origin. These techniques were not known in Bible days.

Jesus Christ said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13). A donation of an organ to give life or better health or sight to another is like laying down a part of your life. It is an act of love.

For this reason I believe it is entirely proper for a person to will selected organs, such as the cornea of the eyes, to a donor organ bank for use in organ transplants, so that after the death of the donor, someone now blind may see, or someone sick may become well.

Excerpt taken from Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions, Copyright 1984 by Pat Robertson.