The second anniversary of the death of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-Hwan
of Seoul comes at a time of increased organ donations attributed to his
advocacy.
Organ donation pledges in Korea have exceeded 100,000
for the second straight year.
The Korean Network for Organ Sharing said
that 124,300 Koreans pledged to donate their organs, down from about
185,000 in 2009 but still ahead of previous years.
“Cardinal Kim’s
donation greatly changed the social atmosphere,” an official from the
organ network told Yonhap News Agency.
“We expect that the number of
donation pledges will be on a steady rise in the long term.”
The
cardinal, who died at the age of 86, was respected by Catholics and
non-Catholics alike. He had inspired the public by donating his eyes to
two patients.
He became a pledged organ donor as early as 1990, saying
he wanted to “give everything and leave with nothing.”
In 1988 he
established the organ donation group One Body, One Spirit. It received
36,500 pledges last year, up from 34,000 in 2009.
Yoon Kyung-joon, an official with the group, said it is important to see that sharing life is a good deed.
“In
line with this, religious circles and private organizations’ efforts to
increase organ donation will expand the base of donation,” he
explained.
The group plans to expand its public campaign to promote organ donation, powered by Cardinal Kim’s example.
Pope Benedict XVI himself was an organ donor until his
election to the papacy, but Vatican officials said on Feb. 5 that this
status was invalidated when he became Pope.
In a 2008 address to a
conference on organ donation, Pope Benedict praised organ donation as a
“testimony of love.”
He also stressed that organ donation should take
place in an ethical manner: vital organs should be removed from a donor
only when his or her death is known with certainty to have taken place.