Pope John Paul II has given his encouragement to organ transplants, while calling for more precise means of establishing that the donor is dead before vital organs are removed.

In a letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, made public by the Vatican on February 3, the Pontiff says that the Church has consistently supported “the practice of transplanting organs from deceased persons.” The Church has also “encouraged the free donation of organs,” he adds, while emphasizing “the ethical conditions for such donation.”

The efforts of a task force set up by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which is studying the question of when death can be medically established, are very important, the Holy Father writes. Organ transplants, he continues, are acceptable only when they are conducted in a manner “so as to guarantee respect for life and for the human person.”

Catholic physicians and moralists have been engaged in a sharp debate in recent years over the question of determining the death of a potential organ donor. If vital organs are removed before death has occurred, moralists point out, then the doctors performing the transplant are causing the death of the donor. On the other hand, organs are ordinarily suitable for donation only if they are removed from a donor whose body is still functioning. For this reason, some Catholic moralists have argued that the transplant of vital organs can never be justified.

The key to the debate is the definition of “brain death"-- a term for which there is no universally accepted definition. Pope John Paul, in his message to the Pontifical Academy, observes that from the Christian perspective, “the moment of death for each person consists in the definitive loss of the constitutive unity of body and spirit.” However, the Pope concedes that this definition does not provide an adequate response to medical questions about “brain death.”

The Pope cites his predecessor, Pope Pius XII, who said that “it is for the doctor to give a clear and precise definition of death and of the moment of death.” John Paul salutes the scientists who are now studying this question for the Pontifical Academy.

The Pope mentions that in considering the topic, the scientists can count on the support of Vatican officials, “especially the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”