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Monsignor N J France MBE Catholic Dean in Jersey
Thank you for inviting me to respond to the Scrutiny Panel re Organ Donation.
While I fully appreciate the value of organ donation, I believe it should be our free choice and not something imposed. It seems rather totalitarian to claim a hold on the dead as we have on them in life (although in the UK we have Death Duties!).
Most religions, especially those of Jews, Christians and Muslims have particular rites over the bodies of their adherents, while they are dying, when preparing the body after death and the burial or cremation itself.
These involve relatives, who would not only feel bereaved but aggrieved at the loss of a body of their loved one, taken by the state for organ translation, only to be returned at a later date.
And what about the bodies of children?
These are concerns which the scrutiny panel needs to take into account.
Best wishes Nicholas France
Monsignor N J France MBE
Catholic Dean in Jersey
St. Thomas' Church, 17 Val Plaisant, St Helier. Jersey, JE2 4TA www.catholicchurch.org.je
00 44 (0) 1534 720235
The Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust
A Registered charity number 246871
Diocesan Office, St Edmund House, Edinburgh Road, Portsmouth PO1 3QA www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk