The issues of moral and ethical values have been swept under the rug. Masquerading under so-called life-giving values, organ transplanting has become big business. In reality, practices surrounding organ “harvesting” is a “logical” conclusion of a materialistic view of human life, driven by self-centeredness and greed.
In the first part of this article I have provided my basic opinion and provided the foundational reference that has provided guidance for my thoughts and conclusions. In the subsequent articles, I will write more details and expand my argument.
People all over the world have been made to believe that organ transplants are a wonderful and beneficial service for others. Doctors, celebrities, religious leaders, politicians and business people are encouraging people to donate their organs as well as to wait patiently for an organ to come their way. Gordon Brown is now advocating the “harvesting” of organs without explicit approval from the patients. Hospitals are setting up medical tourism to provide this service and increase revenue.
Sick people are encouraged to hang onto life in terrible pain and misery, waiting and waiting and hoping and hoping for a rescue. I recently saw a Television program in which an elderly person with heart problems was on a waiting list. He kept saying how he was daily hoping for a heart transplant. I wondered if he even thought for one minute that his wish for a heart meant that someone had to die first! Some child, some partner, some person had to be declared clinically dead and then held in life until his or her body parts could be removed.
Something is terribly wrong here. I know that it is popular to think that there is nothing wrong with organ transplants, but there is and there are many people in this world who strongly disagree with this practice. We need to speak up and protect ourselves.
When grisly details emerged about one nation (reported thus far) accused of deliberately timing executions of criminals and selling organs of the dead criminals, people made such a stink about it. Yet this kind of behaviour is a logical outcome of the materialistic view of life and living. Now we hear that the “Health Ministry has explicitly banned sales of human organs in an apparent attempt to clean up the country’s lucrative but laxly regulated transplant business” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12050522/). And Gordon Brown wants everyone to be on the waiting list so that parts of the bodies can be taken out unless you made sure to opt out. How nice that we hear reports of the efficiency with which Spain has such a policy and they are providing plenty of organs.
Surely there are many of us who disagree with this practice? See for example an excellent article by Michael Tymn. It is time that we give a loud voice to our opinions and beliefs. If you are one of these, and you reject organ harvesting, make sure that your family understands your wishes and that you’re Will explicitly states that you do not wish to have your body parts “harvested.”
Even this word “harvest” is interesting, as if we were picking oranges or apples or bananas to take to market, picked just at the right time!
The Esoteric Teachings speak clearly against organ transplants. To begin this series of articles, I have provided an excellent reprint of a Chapter from the book Other Worlds by Torkom Saraydarian, titled “Organ Transplants.” You are welcome to link to it and read it. In the next few weeks, I will expand on my opinions and conclusions and provide an alternative view of life and how we can deal with illness and the gift of living life after life.
Why am I against organ transplants? Here are some reasons:
1. It retards the evolving path of the departed soul by tying it to the physical earth; it complicates the life of the recipient with the karma of the departed. Every physical part of our bodies is impressed by the experiences of all the lifetimes lived on earth. When a soul is born into a body, all the recordings in the soul from previous lives are impressed on the physical body. Then added to this mix are all of the person’s physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual life experiences from the present life. The recipient takes on the complete personal recordings and life histories of the donor as well as his or her karma from all lifetimes. We are in a double bind: The departed soul is tied to the physical plane, to the recipient, for as long as the recipient lives. The recipient is tied to the departed. This is why we have so many documented cases of recipients taking on the characteristics of the donor, even to the point of developing the same kind of immune system. The result is one body part with two souls attached to it.
2. It emphasizes quick fixes and does not look for causes of illness in the physical, emotional, mental, and karmic worlds; it takes the “easy” and material path to dealing with human problems.
3. It encourages criminal and ethically questionable practices by governments, hospitals, and medical personnel. Everyone focuses on quick fixes.
4. It encourages people to desire life at the expense of others; it makes people physically and materially cantered at the expense of the overall spiritual principles of life. In wishing for an organ for oneself, one is in effect wishing for someone else to die and make his or her body parts available.
5. It forces poor people to sell body parts and preys on the weak, the poor, and the defenceless; it unfairly tips the scales toward the rich and powerful.
6. It makes the families of the departed feel guilty and depraved if they choose not to donate the organs of the departed.
7. It promotes the erroneous involvement by politicians, popular actors and media savvy persons, as well as medical centers into trying to manage life and its meaning, instead of leaving these questions to the spiritual aspects of one’s life.
8. It demeans the sanctity of human life and takes advantage of the departed at their most vulnerable point in physical live.
9. It ignores the complexity and depth of human life, human experiences, the purpose of life, the subtle bodies of human beings, and dismisses the ramifications of manipulating the natural process of life. It focuses only on the immediate material needs for living.
10. It promotes fear of illness and death, likening both to battles to be fought and “won” instead of being processes for learning and redemption.
11. It encourages a person to attach to physical life when all signs point to the need to leave this plane for a short time and re-emerge. It prevents a person from learning key lessons from the karmic conditions that brought the person to the illness or situation. If we learn from our life conditions, these conditions will not be repeated. If we do not learn from them, and cover them up, the fixes are only temporary and we will still need to deal with the causes next time around. The misery and suffering is therefore complicated further and lasts longer than it needs to.
We should indeed take proper medical services needed to live healthy and productive lives. We need to learn to live in a healthy and natural way and learn the causes of a healthy life. I do not believe in suicide nor do I believe in assisted suicide. There is a deeply spiritual and redemptive quality in learning our lessons well in each lifetime, whether we are the sick and suffering or the caretaker of the sick and suffering.
But we do not need to prolong a sick physical body. We are not simply our physical bodies. We are not simply material beings destined to be fertilizers on earth. We need not feel guilty for not donating organs. Nor do we need to make bereaving relatives and family members feel guilty for not donating body parts of a deceased relative. Our life quality is not measured by years on earth in one lifetime; we have thousands of lifetimes in which to grow and learn.
Fear of aging, fear of illness, and fear of dying keeps us tied to the physical existence as if nothing else exits. Fear forces us to emphasize the outer at the expense of inner development; it is extremely short sighted. We grieve when we lose a loved one. This is natural and should take its course. We grieve for our own loss since essentially we cannot grieve for the departure of the other person. No one belongs to us and each person takes birth into a particular family and nation, and then moves out of it. Every birth puts us in a different configuration. This is not news and is taught in all the Ancient Wisdom traditions. We do not belong to one family forever, to one nation forever, to one religion forever, to one race forever. The soul experiences all facets of human life and human existence on earth.
My views are not meant to hurt or insult anyone. Each person should have the freedom to make decisions based on his or her belief system and these decisions should not be forced on us by our religious leaders, politicians, doctors, popular figures, financial considerations, and the like. I am advocating a truly informed decision based on a holistic view of life and not a decision based on sappy emotionalism and pushy sentimentality that is forced on us having undercurrents of dubious motives.
Being treated with dignity at our most vulnerable time is our human right. Every human being has the right to be treated with dignity, no matter what he or she has done. When you are dead, your body must be respected and treated with dignity. When you are dying, you need to be treated with dignity and not have vultures circling around you. When you are on the operating table, you need to know that you are being treated with dignity. It is at the most vulnerable times in our life that dignity outshines all human expressions. When we are not able to speak up for ourselves, it is the height of human dignity to find someone who will.
Gita Saraydarian
Notes to Editor
Gita Saraydarian Educational Background Gita has been imbued with the principles of the Ageless Wisdom since birth. Her parents were students of the Esoteric Teachings from young ages. They were students of the Arcane School for many years. Her father, Torkom Saraydarian, was a renowned scholar and teacher of comparative religions and philosophy. Her mother is a deeply spiritual person whose life has demonstrated selfless sacrifice to her family and community as she raised and educated her five children.
Gita’s educational background includes a Master of Arts degree in Law and Diplomacy; a Master of Arts degree in History; and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics. She also taught and studied in Taiwan. Gita’s multi-disciplinary academic training, travels and studies abroad, and her family background give a cross-cultural quality to her entire philosophy, approach to life and the Spiritual Teaching.
Ageless Wisdom definition:
The Ageless Wisdom is a body of knowledge that has been given to humanity throughout time by Wise men and women. This Wisdom has been imparted through books, mystery schools, music and art, philosophy, religion, and various cultural expressions. The Ageless Wisdom provides an explanation of the Laws of Nature, the Higher Principles and Values that operate in every aspect of life, and the relationship of man to these Laws and Principles. This knowledge as a whole is the theoretical foundation that provides guidance for right living. All fields of human endeavour and religious and philosophical disciplines have at their core the values of the Ageless Wisdom.
It provides a foundation that helps people from all religious, cultural, and philosophical viewpoints and backgrounds to understand and appreciate the common source of human dignity and beauty. It explains the culture of the heart and the basic systems of belief that will help huma
The Ageless Wisdom is a body of knowledge that has been given to humanity throughout time by Wise men and women. This Wisdom has been imparted through books, mystery schools, music and art, philosophy, religion, and various cultural expressions. The Ageless Wisdom provides an explanation of the Laws of Nature, the Higher Principles and Values that operate in every aspect of life, and the relationship of man to these Laws and Principles. This knowledge as a whole is the theoretical foundation that provides guidance for right living. All fields of human endeavour and religious and philosophical disciplines have at their core the values of the Ageless Wisdom.
It provides a foundation that helps people from all religious, cultural, and philosophical viewpoints and backgrounds to understand and appreciate the common source of human dignity and beauty. It explains the culture of the heart and the basic systems of belief that will help humanity actualize the culture of the heart.
This Teaching gives the information, the direction, and the causes and effects of living within the framework of Higher Values.
nity actualize the culture of the heart.
This Teaching gives the information, the direction, and the causes and effects of living within the framework of Higher Values.
The Ageless Wisdom Teaching's 