To Request Commission on Theology and Church Relations Report on Human Organ Donation and Transplantation

To Request Commission on Theology and Church Relations Report on Human Organ Donation and Transplantation

RESOLUTION 5-10 Overture 5-23 (CW, 350)

WHEREAS, The 1981 Synod convention adopted Resolution 8 -05, “To Encourage Donation of Kidneys and Other Organs” (Proc., 204), which encouraged organ donation; and

WHEREAS, Both medical technology and its academic, peer -reviewed, and published theological assessment have changed significantly since 1981 and raised complex and morally weighty questions about human organ donation and transplantation and the implications of its encouragement and routinization; and

WHEREAS, The encouragement given by the Synod in 1981 may, even unintentionally, burden the consciences of church workers and laity who hold informed and serious concerns about the practice and moral implications of routinized human organ donation and transplantation; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod in convention ask the Commission on Theology and Church Relations to produce a document that considers and evaluates the theological and moral implications of human organ donation and transplantation.

The Chief Financial Officer and LCMS Accounting and Financial Services staff, in consultation with the Finance Committee, anticipate no significant incremental costs as the activity is understood to be within the existing scope and budget of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (estimate required by Bylaw 3.1.7 [g]).