This is not going to be a happy blog. Because we have been let down- big time.
I had known, since I was a young man, that I was not allowed to donate my organs, should I reach an untimely (or timely) death. My religion forbids the defilement of a corpse. Until 1986, when the Chief Sfardi Rabbi (Ovadya Yosef) issued a proclamation…It would be permissible to donate one’s organs to save another’s life- actually, it was an honor for the dead. (The principles are called Pikuach Nefesh [the obligation to save someone in peril] and Kavod Hamet [honoring the dead].). You may not recognize how radical this was- it turned 5000+ years of tradition and rabbinic rulings on its head.