Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Organ donation and buddhism

There's lot to do about organ donation at the moment here in the news and someone asked me if buddhists are able to donate, because they belief they'll be reborn.

Well, many people know there are different ways to dispose of a dead body and as far as I know there are no laws the body should be kept completely whole and accessible after death.

In fact the body doesn't belong to the mind.
And one could state that clinging to the body, even after death, is a form of attachment. So it's not done.

People who won't commit themselves to donate are rather attached to their bodies and being good looking even as a corpse.

So donating is showing understanding of anatta (not self) and generosity (dana).
Most people who donate do it because the feel compassion for the people who suffer bad functioning organs.

So there's no conflict at all between organ donation and buddhism.
On the contrary.
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