Heart transplant

[Guest guest]

What exactly is a heart transplant? Is it replacing the heart of a person with another person's heart? Then if a heart transplant is done, where will the atma go and will it go to another heart? Reallly confused!!!

[Guest guest]

Yes, heart transplant involves real transplantation of heart where the donor and receipient are immunologically compatible by all means.

Athma or soul does not rest in heart. Heart is just a blood pumping machine after its being oxygenated.

Heart is being used since time immemorial to depict one's love primarily because of the luptup beating sound which one can hear by keeping our ears on any body's chest. When heart beat stops blood circulation or pumping stops but still in some cases brain remains alive even if it is naturally stopped. Brain dead is actually death. During heart surgery heart is invariably stopped from beating and the function of blood pumping is carried by the heart-lung machine.

Concept of soul in an organism is very difficult to explain since each cell is living and has a potency to give rise to another cell. For a single cellular organism the soul rests in the life of that single cell. For a multicellular organism ranging from the poriferans in invertebrates to Humans in class Mammalia in vertebrates, soul must be controlled at the brain level (in my opinion and understanding based on science and also religion) or in other words the system that controls the organism say the nervous system which holds the final life of that organism.

So in conclusion, heart transplantation does not involve transfer of memmory or transfer of soul. Its just like transplantation of eye (cornea) or kidney or liver.

Shyam

[Priitaa]

Even on the level of subtle body, there is first the heart chakra before the heart can exist. But really, that too is material, just subtle materal energy. It is all coming down from spiriutal energy and Krishna is the Personified source of ALL energy.

 

Srila Prabhupada explained that when there is a heart transplant, Paramatma simply steps aside and then enters into the new heart, as does the individuals soul. We are not these physical bodies, not even the physical heart. They are merely external manifestations of something going on at a much higher level.

 

[Guest guest]

Should devotees engage in organ donations? or perhaps only for other devotees so that they aren't used for sinful activity (like eating meat).

[Guest guest]

That's a good question. I don't know that there is an official stance on this, but you make an excellent point.

 

Additionally and for myself, I do not have 'donate organs' checked my drivers license. I don't sufficiently trust the allopathic doctors, having heard stories where they unplug a patient sooner than they would if you had not signed that donar card, for example. Some may claim this is fiction and not true. I can't say for certain, all I know is I don't want to find out the hard way. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Guest guest]

I thought I was logged in, but wasn't. That last post was by me.

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Guest guest]

This is currently troubling me as I am a donor but am in the midst of reconsidering. It is a relief that the atman is unaffected with a transplant but my question is it our duty to donate or as everyone's death is predestined anyway with karma thrown in, does it really matter if we donate and is it actually going against fundamental religious ethics (e.g same reason why Jehovah witness won't accept blood transfusions)? could it also affect our proper funeral rites being carried out?

[theist]

The homeless dogs of whatever area I drop my body off in get to eat what's left of it.

[Raghavan]

What do you loose by dontating your body parts to someone if its going to save a life after your soul's departure from your body. There is nothing to make a big issue about organ transplant for both practical and spiritual reasons. Practical reasons: anyways the person who got the transplanted organ cannot perform all the healthier movements as the normal individual (Unless its eye or kidney to an extent) as all the other transplants does not survive anyway longer due to immunological reasons and infections. SO that receipient cannot perform any thing that would be against religion or God. I dont think that anyone who goes to the transplant stage will forget God after that, because I invariably see atheists becoming theists and beleive in God in that stage.

SPiritual Reasons: IF a soul is destined to survive in a body by Lord, transplantation of organ to that body of the soul is actually made succefful by Lord for LOrd's own reasons to survive that body and so why do you break your head about being an organ donor.

BY being a donor, its certainly human. Dont worry about other person is bad or good. Everything is already set and we are only executing the actions.

Shyam