Atheists and organ donation
Atheists and organ donation
Atheists each have their own personal moral code, generally derived from secular considerations rather than a religious text.
Humanists are one non-religious group who believe that moral values are founded on human nature and experience.
Humanists believe that we should all try to live full and happy lives, and that this includes helping other people to do the same.
Morally many humanists may believe that they have a responsibility to allow their organs to be used if, by donating organs after their death, they can help someone else.
Donating an organ as a live donor, for example a kidney, is again seen by humanists as an individual decision.
The Executive Director of the British Humanist Association, Hanne Stinson, says: "It's about weighing up the risk you are taking and the benefit to another person, and making a rational decision."
A discussion of transplants
Beyond Belief, first broadcast Monday 9 July 2007, Radio 4
Dr John Harris is the Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics at Manchester Uni with a background as joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics and a Fellow of the United Kingdom Academy of Medical Sciences. Also contributing are Reverend Mark Bratton, an Anglican chaplain and former barrister specialising in medical law who teaches medical ethics and law at Warwick University, and Rabbi Chaim Rapoport, an advisor in the Chief Rabbi's cabinet on medical ethics.