This week a new law came into effect in the UK whereby everyone over 18 becomes an organ donor unless they opt-out.
Other exceptions to the law are people who lack the mental capacity to understand the changes to the law, visitors to England, those not living in England voluntarily, and people who have lived in England for less than twelve months before their death.
The new system is called Max and Keira’s law after a boy’s life was saved by a young girl who died in a car crash in 2017.
It is hoped these changes will increase the supply of organs to help save and improve more lives.
In the light of this new “presumed consent” the Bishops of England and Wales have produced guidelines for Catholics in order to help them make a well-informed decision about donating their organs after death.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity.”
Underlining the Church’s teaching on this issue, Saint John Paul II, in his address to the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society in 2000, said that “there is a need to instill in people’s hearts, especially in the hearts of the young, a genuine and deep appreciation of the need for brotherly love, a love that can find expression in the decision to become an organ donor.”
Reinforcing the Polish Pope’s words, Bishop Paul Mason, Lead Bishop for Healthcare and Mental Health told Vatican Radio that giving “one organ to save someone else is good and the Church encourages people to be organ donors.”
