More than a few Buddhists would choose to maintain that the body of a

person shortly after death should in no way be moved or meddled with,

not to mention have its organs harvested! The activity-consciousness of

the dead, they would think, might not have departed from the body such

that meddling of any form might induce pain. Nowhere in the sutras,

however, could this information be found. Hence utterly invalid.

Total or partial application of anesthesia in surgery today means the

patient is totally or partially rendered free from pain. Then again, isn' t

the activity-consciousness still within the body throughout the process?

So, it makes no sense deeming a patient painless from anesthesia in

surgery is pained in organ donation after death. Buddhists unable to

figure this out end up with fear aplenty over the prospect of organ

donation after death.

Shapeless and formless, the activity-consciousness of a human being

is above and beyond the anesthetic domain. The body feels pain solely

from workings of the nervous system. When medically pronounced brain

dead, all senses stop functioning; when organs are removed, all pains

should no longer be. That the activity-consciousness does not exit after

death is but the thought of attachment to the body and hence irrelevant

to the Buddhist doctrine. What' s more, the body pertains to the alayavijnana,

the storehouse of all seeds of consciousness that is painless,

feelingless and left only with indifference to sensation, abandonment

of suffering and pleasure. (Source: Upasaka Lu Rongguang)