The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church expressed its position on organ transplantation and organ donation. In its position, the Synod states that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church perceives donation and transplants as an expression of love as a kind of altruism.
„The Bulgarian Orthodox Church does not accept that the unwanted refusal should be interpreted as consensus because the absence of refusal except for possible consent may be due to many other reasons – such as ignorance, lack of opportunity for volition, not least – absence of decision. The Church is required to protect the donor institution, its practice and its affiliates, any destruction, forced diagnosis, or overthrow of the criteria of marine death, commercialization, or transaction of any kind with regard to organ donation, recipients based on racial criteria, violation of the order of waiting for a suitable donor, etc. n.
BOC – BP gives a blessing to perform transplants under the following conditions:
1. Strict and regulated observance of fundamental bioethical principles;
2. Establishment of brain death according to strictly defined clinical criteria, through highly specialized instrumental studies / angiography, MRI, etc. methods / by an absolutely independent / external / committee. Currently, the law and regulations in the Republic of Bulgaria allow the diagnosis of brain death and without carrying out instrumental evidence tests that the church could not accept;
3. Written informed consent / statement of the donor and his / her closest organs, cells and tissues to be taken in case of brain death, and not a presumption of ubiquitous consent to the donation;
4. The entire clinical transplantation process needs to be coordinated and carried out by well-established national transplantation centers that have the trust of society and ensure as far as possible the implementation of the brain death procedure and the overall rights of the donor, and to ensure the highest success rates of the transplant procedure in the interest of the recipient;
5. BOC – BP reserves the right to change its position in the event of a change in the legislation and the transplantation law“.
This is stated in the statement of the Holy Synod, published on the official site of the Bulgarian Church.