Putting on Incorruption and Becoming a Potential Relic: An Orthodox Christian Consideration of the Reality of Deification in a World of Disenchantment and Body Donation
Ryan Nash, M.D., M.A., Director, Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, The Ohio State University
Debate involving organ donation has focused on the efficient and precise determination of death in order to adhere to a thin allegiance to a ‘dead donor rule.’ Popular culture and governmental departments cast organ donors as ‘heroes’ that are ‘giving the gift of life.’ Likewise, those that donate their bodies to educational or research endeavors are seen as giving altruistically to the furthering of science. Most ethicists, even Christian ethicists, often endorse both organ and body donation once concerns over a dead donor rule and a requisite informed consent is provided. The defenses of these practices, the decisions by most donors, and the policies governing them assume a materialist reality – a reality that only considers bios and not zoe. Some in wanting to show respect and give possibility for reality and utility beyond the immanent material have furthered secularized or universal memorial services. Even with these latter efforts, the body remains disenchanted.
The scenario described above is foreign to the mind of the Orthodox Christian Church. Orthodoxy confesses that all Orthodox Christians are potential relics. The Church has particular prescriptions involving the body of a reposed Christian. The mysteries in the sacramental life of a Christian and those at the time of death do not assume a materialist reality but a unique and transformed body. Deification and putting on incorruption are not intellectual concepts or items for rational assent but are spiritual processes that include the body and even the body after death. With these realities in mind, this paper will attempt to offer an Orthodox appraisal of organ and body donation – its general prohibition and potential exceptions of permissibility.
Debate involving organ donation has focused on the efficient and precise determination of death in order to adhere to a thin allegiance to a ‘dead donor rule.’ Popular culture and governmental departments cast organ donors as ‘heroes’ that are ‘giving the gift of life.’ Likewise, those that donate their bodies to educational or research endeavors are seen as giving altruistically to the furthering of science. Most ethicists, even Christian ethicists, often endorse both organ and body donation once concerns over a dead donor rule and a requisite informed consent is provided. The defenses of these practices, the decisions by most donors, and the policies governing them assume a materialist reality – a reality that only considers bios and not zoe. Some in wanting to show respect and give possibility for reality and utility beyond the immanent material have furthered secularized or universal memorial services. Even with these latter efforts, the body remains disenchanted.
The scenario described above is foreign to the mind of the Orthodox Christian Church. Orthodoxy confesses that all Orthodox Christians are potential relics. The Church has particular prescriptions involving the body of a reposed Christian. The mysteries in the sacramental life of a Christian and those at the time of death do not assume a materialist reality but a unique and transformed body. Deification and putting on incorruption are not intellectual concepts or items for rational assent but are spiritual processes that include the body and even the body after death. With these realities in mind, this paper will attempt to offer an Orthodox appraisal of organ and body donation – its general prohibition and potential exceptions of permissibility.