Ethical Assessments of Brain Death and Organ Procurement Policies: A Survey of Transplant Personnel in the United States

Journal of Transplant Coordination, Vol. 9, Number 4, December 1999 These attacks on whole brain death criteria for diagnosing death are likely reinforced by two things. First, brain-dead bodies do reveal many signs of life—even if this life is no longer regarded as the life of a human being. These signs can include maintaining a spontaneous heartbeat, fighting infections, digestion, demonstrating spinal reflexes, and, in some spectacular cases, sustaining a pregnancy.2,8,9 Second, popular media reports sometimes speak of brain death as a disorder rather than as the biological and legal death of a person. For example, nearly a decade after the Uniform Determination of Death Act, one headline announced “Brain-dead woman gives birth, then dies” (San Francisco Chronicle, August 4, 1993). The effects of these skeptical concerns about brain death are ambiguous. On the one hand, these challenges have not led to any mainstream, concerted efforts to change the Uniform Determination of Death Act or organ procurement policies. Policy proposals that seriously consider skeptical views regarding brain death quite frequently move in a more liberal, rather than a more conservative, direction. A common conclusion following from denials that Ethical assessments of brain death and organ procurement policies: a survey of transplant personnel in the United States