Rebecca Schenker asks: What is the deal with organ donations for when Mashiach comes? How will those who have donated live if they are missing organs?
Great question! Building off of the points made already by Mrs. Herzog and Rabbi Besser concerning the controversy over donating organs (brain stem death vs heart failure to determine the point of death), there are still many problems people have with organ donation, even if one holds that a person is halakhically dead when their brain stem dies and that taking their organs is permissiable. Aren't we supposed to respect dead bodies, not desecreate them ("nivul hamet"), bury them right away, along with the question of resurrection in the messianic era if they have no organs?
The Halakhic Organ Donation Society deals with this very question of tehiat hameitim on their website, and responds that the belief that one has to be buried "whole" in order to be resurrected has no source in any classical Jewish texts. We don't know how G-d plans on bringing everyone back to life, but one can assume that He can do it, even without organs, especially since ultimately every person buried decomposes - organs and bones alike. Moreover, the vision of Yehezkel in perek 37 of that sefer depicts only dry bones coming back to life (organs not included).
Additionally, the Mishna and Gemara describe how historically when someone died, the family would put the body in a special burial cave until it completely decomposed (including organs), and then a family member would perform "likut atzamot" ("collecting the bones"), where they would collect the bones and place them in ossuaries, a special family chest where the bones would remain (for more info and pictures of ossuaries found in Israel, check out this link on the HODS site: http://www.hods.org/English/h-issues/issues.asp#Resurrection).
The final point on this topic is that all the other issues of desecrating bodies and having to bury people right away - are valid halakhic issues, but can be cancelled out due to the competing factor of Pikuach Nefesh, since through donating your organs you can contibute to saving the lives of up to 7 people (http://www.hods.org/English/activities/donors.asp), a huge and tremendous Mitzvah!!
Halakhic organ donation is an especially crucial issue today in Israel, as due to misinformation, many Jews do not donate their organs, not knowing that they are great Rabbanim who believe it to be halakhically acceptable and even a huge mitzvah! Therefore Israel as a country has developed a reputation in the world as a country that takes organs and does not give organs in return. This has led to many countries in the world calling for Israel's removal from the World Organ Bank, as well as the state receiving a terrible reputation (which is not exactly what we're aiming for with our mission to be an אור לגוים), and with many Israelis dying waiting for transplants as there aren't enough organs to go around.
Check out the HODS site, get informed and read up about this very important and crucial issue -
http://www.hods.org/.
-Ms. Gordon
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