Memorandum by Sukyo Mahikari
Thank you very much for the opportunity to respond
to the questions related to the ethics of organ donation and transplantation
and the matter of "assumed consent".
QUESTION 1
According to the teachings of Sukyo Mahikari,
death does not occur in an instant but progressively over time,
sometimes even over several days. It is hard to define an instant
of death. As well as this, we believe that the soul of a person
continues to exist after "death", not in the physical
world, but in the unseen world of spirits (astral world).
According to our teachings, a human being is
a trinity of a spiritual body, astral body and physical body.
When a person dies, the soul, that is the spiritual and astral
bodies withdraw from the physical body and continue to exist in
the astral world. After a period of time, the soul will reincarnate
into another physical body.
In a living person, the spiritual, astral and
physical bodies function together in a closely interwoven and
interconnected manner whilst occupying the same physical space.
According to our belief, the spiritual and astral
bodies may not have completely left the physical body at the time
when organs are removed from the human body. This is even after
the person has stopped breathing. This may cause spiritual problems
for both the donor and recipient. It may take 24 hours for the
spiritual body and astral body to fully withdraw from the physical
body.
There are accounts of people who have had near
death experiences where the soul has left the physical body and
later returned within that period of time.
Our concern, as part of an international organisation
with members in almost all EU Member States, is that the ethics
of organ donation and transplantation have not yet been fully
explored particularly with respect to the spiritual aspect. It
is, therefore, essential that government agencies, NGOs and the
general public maintain an on-going debate about the ethics of
organ donation and transplantation.
QUESTION 2
Members of Sukyo Mahikari are very likely not
to want to donate an organ automatically for all the reasons outlined
above. Nevertheless, according to our teachings, we would not
simply decide that all transplants are not acceptable. A person
wishing to be a donor or to receive the donation of an organ from
another would therefore be very likely to seek to discuss the
matter seriously. It is, therefore, almost unthinkable that a
member would wish his consent to being an organ donor be assumed
without consultation with himself (or with those who shared or
at least knew of his spiritual beliefs, in a case where he was
not able to express them for himself).
QUESTION 3
It is likely that a member of Sukyo Mahikari
would consider it unethical that either he or she is assumed to
be a potential organ donor unless he or she specifically opts
out. We are of the opinion that members would wish it to be both
UK and EU policy that anyone willing to be a organ donor be given
the option of positively choosing to be a donor rather than being
a situation where everyone is regarded as a potential organ donor
and anyone not wishing to be a potential organ donor has to actively
opt out. In other words, there should be a positive choice to
be an organ donor rather than a negative choice not to be one.
In some circumstances, we envisage that a member may indeed wish
to express his or her compassion for the suffering of another
person, by electing to be an organ donor.
QUESTION 4
Although it may seem convenient to have a blanket
exemption for members of our organisation or any other organisation,
as a general policy we believe that each person, whether they
are living in the UK or any other EU country, should have the
positive option to opt in when it comes to the matter of consent
to be an organ donor or recipient. People should have the right
to choose and they should base their choice not on any form of
coercion, or assumed expectation of the state, but on informed
opinion and their own beliefs (including spiritual and religious
beliefs) and personal experience.
However, it is very understandable that people
of goodwill would seek to address the suffering of others by organ
transplants. The approach of Sukyo Mahikari is to address the
issues that underlie this suffering and to seek to reduce the
number of people who suffer. We do this through our spiritual
practice of the art of True Light.
Thank you very much for allowing our organisation
to express our views concerning organ donation and transplantation.
If we can be of any further help, please do contact us.
25 February 2008
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