In medical practices of all specialties, organ transplantation is the one that most clearly demonstrates the close relationship between death and the new life, the rebirth from the ashes like the Phoenix: the mythological bird symbol of the renewal of time and life after death. (1)

The topic "organ donation and transplants" is quite contemporary in the world scenario. On the subject, the instructive information of the Spiritual Benefactors is not abundant. The instigating Genome Project, research on embryonic stem cells and others signal the scope of human science.

Transplants, in ancient times full of cases of rejection, have become today's practices of organic recomposition. The care "in-vivo" of experiments aimed at regenerating cells and the perspective of improving life goes ahead, despite the fact that research is still testing the beginning steps. This makes the expectation of contemporary science auspicious.

However, the fear of the unknown hovers in the minds of many. Some spiritists refuse to authorize, in life, the donation of their own organs after disincarnating, claiming that Chico Xavier was not in favor of transplants.

This is not true! It is necessary to clarify that Chico Xavier, when he stated "my mediumship, my life, I dedicated to my family, my friends, the people. My death is mine. I have this right. Nobody can touch my body; it must go for Mother Earth", he did so because when he was still incarnated, Chico received several [inappropriate] proposals for his brain to be studied after his disincarnating. Hence, the understandable fear that his body would be desecrated in that sense.

We cannot forget that, if today we are potential donors, tomorrow we may be potential recipients or our family members and friends. "For most people, the issue of donation is as remote and distant as death. But for those who are waiting for an organ for transplantation, it means the only possibility of life!" (2)

Joanna de Ângelis, aware of this importance, points out "(...) A true blessing, organ transplantation grants the opportunity to continue physical existence, as a moratorium, through which the Spirit continues its organic journey. After all, life in the body is a means to fullness - which is life itself, flowing and real" (3)

In an interview with TV Tupi in August 1964, Chico Xavier comments that organ transplantation, in the opinion of the wise spirits, is a very legitimate problem of science, very natural and must be taken forward. The spirits, according to the medium from Uberaba, do not believe that organ transplants are contrary to natural laws. For it is very natural that, when we get rid of the physical body, we come to donate the helpful organs to companions in need of them, who can use them with profit. (4)

Donating organs for transplants is perfectly legitimate. Divaldo Franco certifies: if divine mercy gives us a healthy physical organization, it is fair and valid, after having used this heritage, to offer it, thanks to the valuable achievements of science and technology, to those who came in need in order to continue the journey. (5)

There are also no traumatizing or inhibiting reflexes in the spiritual body, in contrast to the mutilation of the physical body. The eye-giver will not return blind to the Beyond. If that were the case, what would become of those whose bodies were consumed by fire or disintegrated in an explosion? (6)

When can you specify that a person is dead? According to the American Society of Neuroradiology, brain death is the irreversible state of cessation of all brain and neural functions, resulting from edema and massive destruction of brain tissues, although cardiopulmonary activity can be maintained by advanced life support systems and mechanisms of ventilation”. (7)

In this state, there is the possibility of the organ donor "dying". Only then can his organs be used - since organs without blood supply are not suitable for transplants. Was it euthanasia? Evidently, characterizing the fact as such lacks scientific reasoning (...) to condemn organ transplantation: euthanasia would in no way fit in these cases of proven brain death. (8)

Medicine, all over the world, is sure that brain death, which includes the death of the brainstem (10) will only be verified through two neurological exams, with an interval of six hours, and a complementary one. Thus, when irreversible cessation of neural function is verified, this patient will be dead, according to the unanimity of the medical literature.

An issue that is also often raised is the body's rejection after surgery. Chico Xavier again comes to our aid, explaining: Andre Luiz considers rejection to be a clearly understandable problem, as the organ of the spiritual body is present in the receiver. The perispiritual organ provokes the elements of the body's defense, which the immunological resources in the near future, naturally, will halt or curb. (11)

Specialists, starting in 1967, developed several immunosuppressant drugs (cyclosporine, azathioprine and corticoids) to reduce the possibility of rejection, thus allowing organ recipients to have a longer survival. (12)

Statistically, what happens is that the life extension rate of transplants is extremely high. This is thanks not only to medical techniques, which are always improving, but also to the immunosuppressive regimens that have developed and expanded considerably, and currently there are regimens that lead to zero percent (0%) acute cell rejection in the initial phase of the transplant, which is when they occur. (13)

Andre Luiz explains that when the cell is removed from its formative structure, in the human body, going to the laboratory for another energetic environment, it loses the mental command that guided it and starts, in this way, to individualize itself. When implanted in another organism [by transplantation, for example], it will tend to adapt to the new [spiritual] command that will revitalize it and then coordinate its path. (14)

Joanna de Angelis corroborates this condition when she explains: (...) when the organ is transferred to another body, the perispirit of the incarnated person automatically begins to influence it, molding it to its needs, which will demand an urgent moral transformation from the beneficiary patient for the better. Thus, his map of trials is also modified by his inner renewal, generating new triggering causes for the happiness you seek and perhaps still do not deserve. (15)

The Spirits told Kardec that disconnecting from the physical body is a highly specialized process and that it can take minutes, hours, days, months. (16) Although with physical death there is no longer any vitality in the body, there are still cases in which the Spirit, whose life was all material, sensual, is yoked to the spoils, due to the affinity given by him to matter. (17)

However, let us remember the situation that occurs every day in large cities: the practice of necropsy, required by law, in cases of violent death or without determined cause: the corpse is opened, from the sternal region to the lower abdomen, exposing the thoracoabdominal viscera. (18)

One cannot lose sight of the individual merit. Would the fate of disembodied spirits be at the mercy of men's decision to remove their organs for transplantation, to cremate their bodies or to cut up their viscera during the necropsy? Common sense and reason scream that this is not possible, because it would be to admit the justice of chance and chance does not exist! (19)

In short, the donation of organs for transplants will not affect the spirit of the donor, except if we believe that the Law of God is unfair and we are in the Orb adrift of His Will. Let us remember that in the Statutes of the Father, there is no room for injustice and organ transplantation (a feat of human science) is a valuable opportunity among many others placed at our disposal for the exercise of love.

Bibliographic references:

1- Mario Abbud Filho Former President of the Brazilian Association of Organ Transplants. President of the Society of Medicine and Surgery of Sao Jose do Rio Preto. Member of the American Society Transplant Physician. Member of the International Transplantation Society, access available on 04/12/2005

2- In Organ Donation and Transplantation, by Wlademir Lisso / Cleusa M. Cardoso de Paiva, available for access on 04/15/2004

3- Franco, Divaldo Pereira. Glorious Days, dictated by the Spirit Joanna de Angelis. Salvador/Ba: Ed. LEAL, 1999, Cf. Cap. Organ Transplants

4- Published in the Spiritist Magazine Allan Kardec, year X, no.38

5- Franco, Divaldo Pereira. Seara de Luz, Salvador: Editora LEAL [the book presents a series of interviews with Divaldo between 1971 and 1990.]

6- Simonetti, Richard. Who is afraid of death? - Sao Paulo / SP: Editora Lumini, 2001

7- In: "From organ transplants to cloning", by Rita Maria P. Santos, Ed. Forense, Rio/RJ, 2000, p. 41

Transplants in the Spiritist Vision, published in the Revista Reformador - October/1998

9- Idem

10- The brainstem, and not the heart, is recognized as the organizer and "commander" of all vital processes. It houses the neural capacity for breathing and spontaneous heartbeats; without trunk no one breathes by itself.

11- Cf. Spiritist Magazine Allan Kardec, year X, n°38

12- Folha de S. Paulo, A3, "Opinião", May 15, 2001

13- Interview with Prof. Doctor Flavio Jota de Paula Physician at the Renal Transplant Unit at HC/FMUSP. 1st Secretary of the Brazilian Association of Organ Transplantation (ABTO). Director of the 1st Organ Transplantation Mini Marathon in Brazil. Published in Hospital Practice year IV No. 24 Nov-Dec/2002

14- Xavier, Francisco Candido. Evolution in two worlds - Dictated by the Spirit Andre Luiz. 5th Ed. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Ed FEB, 1972, chap. "Cells and Spiritual Body"

15- Franco, Divaldo Pereira. Glorious Days, dictated by do pelo Espírito Joanna de Angelis. Salvador: Ed. LEAL, 1999

16- Kardec, Allan. The Book of Spirits, RJ: Ed FEB/2003, question no.155, Chap. XI.

17- Kühl Eurípedes 24/04/2005 DONATION OF TRANSPLANT ORGANS Virtual Interview available access on 04/24/2005

18- Cf. Bezerra, Evandro Noleto. Transplant of Organs in the Spiritist View, published in the Reformador Magazine - October/1998

19- Bezerra, Evandro Noleto. Transplant of Organs in the Spiritist View.