What could be more noble than allowing someone to live through the donation of vital organs from others. Nothing.

It is the utmost in kindness, a gift from the departed, to those who still have a chance of life. It might be corneas, it might be a liver, a heart, a kidney… all that we take for granted in our lives depends on the functioning of our internal machinery. If something fails, or malfunctions, we can die or spend the rest of our lives on treatment.

What is even more noble is when a family loses a loved one and allows those organs to be passed on for harvesting to be used to save the lives of others. We might all have noble thoughts of being able to do it automatically, but we are sure that the decision to do so must be one that is a complex one to take.

There must be feelings of guilt, of sorrow, of selfishness, of physical aversion… these must all be felt when people, especially the closest – wives, husbands and parents – try to reach a decision on donating organs.

Others are of a different school of thought and say that by donating organs to those who need them, a part of their loved one lives on. This is a wonderful thought, and we are sure that it is of solace to the survivors.

Science is indeed a wonderful thing. The organs of people who have passed away are put on ice and rushed to recipients who hopefully will have a new lease of life. It is truly amazing to think that a vital organ removed from a dead person can once again function and flow as soon as life-giving oxygenated blood is pumped through it.

We reserve a special thought for the family of the young man who passed away recently after a fatal accident in Ta’ Qali. It was a silly prank that went horribly wrong. Our thoughts are with the family. They should be praised for the decision they have taken to donate their beloved son’s organs to others.

But the mere fact that this makes it to the news is an indication that we have still not yet readily embraced the idea of donating organs to others. People are still reticent and it is not the ‘natural thing to do’. It is seen as one hell of a commitment to make. There is currently a campaign in Europe to incorporate the declaration of organ donorship on identification documents, but this is still a long way from becoming the norm. When we really think about it, what is more precious than giving others the gift of life?