Organ donation
Church belief in the resurrection of the body led to a prohibition against cremation that was pastorally modified at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s under limited circumstances, but those conditions have been largely ignored even by the clergy. According to the "Catechism", burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy that must treat the body with respect and love (e.g. scattering of cremated remains, burial in an unmarked grave, etc. are forbidden in the Catholic Church). Organ donation after death and organ transplants under certain terms, also autopsies for legal and scientific reasons are permitted.