Editorial

We are all a heart beat away from death. Sometimes death comes naturally as a consequence of aging; increasingly often it is the outcome of an event when life is cut off abruptly, tragically.

The death of Brian Vella after hanging between life and death in hospital for almost a month was one such. Mr Vella was delivering a motorcycle to a dealer, a transport he did not often ride, when the accident that was to cause him his life took place. A husband, a son and a father to two children, there were signs of a recovery after he underwent surgery but, sadly, he succumbed to his injuries.

Normally this is the end of a story as well as a life. This time, however, the ending had a beginning thanks to his family's decision to donate three of his organs: his heart, his kidneys and his liver. This act of generosity gave a new lease of life to four patients, three in Malta and one in Palermo.

Here was a case of an untimely death making the life of others possible. Mr Vella may not have given up his life so that others could live but those who continue to live as a result of the donation of his organs may be forgiven if, in their gratitude, they feel he had.

The action of Mr Vella's family was a brave one on a number of counts. Emotionally and psychologically it must have been enormously difficult to make that decision. There is something sacred about a dead person and we do not easily think it is a good and noble idea to diminish its wholeness, even if we know, as we do, that such wholeness is temporary and it is only a matter of time before it goes the way of all flesh. Nobly, however, the family decided in favour of the lives of others, an example of a culture in favour of life, pro-life if you wish, emerging from the sadness of death.

This is something we should all think about, how we can help others through our death if we end this life with organs that are healthy enough to be passed on. One does not have to be morbid about it at all. It is merely a decision taken deliberately during one's lifetime to be of critical help to others who may benefit from our death as our heirs benefit from any will we may leave behind.

In the same way as we donate blood to others who may be urgently in need of a transfusion, so also there could be an ongoing campaign to encourage organ donation.

This process has caught on abroad and is one that would, we are sure, find givers as generous as the Vella family if they are made aware of the need there is for life-saving organs. Given the delicacy of the moments when death occurs it is eminently sensible that there is an awareness of any such donations, both by the family and by the health authorities, during the donor's lifetime.

What has to be guarded against at all costs, however, is an ungenerous attitude to this act of generosity, an attitude that could translate into unwholesome and insensitive requests for organs at any time and a blanket anathema to the idea of organ-trafficking, a reprehensible form of money-making that has not escaped the minds of filthy men and illegal organisations abroad.

Let the watchword be prudence at all times and again more prudence.