Organ Donation day is observed on 6th August each year. Interestingly, the possibility of and the virtue of donating one’s organs for the benefit of others was considered in Buddhism over 2000 years before it actually became possible. In the Jataka Tales there is a fascinating story in which the Buddha, in one of his former lives as a bodhisattva donated his eyes to a blind man. The story relates in detail how his eyes were removed from their sockets, how the optic nerves were severed and how they were then surgically implanted into the sockets of the blind man. (Ja.IV,407)
