[Buddha-l] Heart of the matter?

[Margaret Gouin]

On Tue, October 30, 2007 3:39 am, Alex Wilding wrote:
> Weng-Fai Wong asked:
>> I further understand that in Tibetan Buddhism, organ "harvesting" of the
>> deceased is strictly prohibited - since the dead cannot be touched till
>> a certain number of days later. What is their current position on this?
> Who are "they"? There is no centralized authority.
> All the best
> AlexW

One group at least (FPMT) has been given some direction on this. In
_Advice and Practices for Death & Dying for the Benefit of Self and
Others_, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has a section on 'Practicing charity with the
body' (p. 41 for those of you who want to check) where he suggests that
it's okay if you wait as long as the doctor who's going to harvest the
organs says you can, and just before that time is up, perform 'pho ba
(transference).

I haven't heard of any other modern attempts by any Tibetan Buddhist
traditions or groups to sort this out, and would appreciate being advised
if anyone has more information--this is related to my field of research.
Thanks.

Margaret

-- 
Margaret Gouin
PhD Candidate
Centre for Buddhist Studies
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol (UK)