Rome

Pope Benedict XVI is a card-carrying organ donor.

The disclosure came after an article in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, calling into question the concept of brain death as the end of life rather than cardio-circulatory arrest.

The article by Lucetta Scaraffia, a professor of modern history at the University of Rome, was viewed by some as an attack on organ transplants from the bodies of people declared to be brain dead. Ms Scaraffia appeared to admit this in an interview in which she said that she had “a certain resistance to organ transplants”. In response, the Italian Association of Organ Donors confirmed that the Pope had signed up as a donor. It is unlikely that any of his organs would be transplanted, however, because the bodies of pontiffs are interred intact.

The support for transplants is significant because the Church is debating the exact moments at which life begins and ends. A spokesman for the Vatican said that the article did not signal any change in the official teaching of the Church.