Consider this statement....?!
Question: "I suggest that the organ that really matters is the cerebral cortex. If the cortex is dead, there is permanent loss of consciousness and there can be no person, no personality, even though the organism may still be alive (with a beating heart, and even breathing movements). If the cortex of the brain dead, the person is dead. I suggest that it should be legal to use the organs from the body of the dead person for transplantation."
What's your views?
Answers: "I suggest that the organ that really matters is the cerebral cortex. If the cortex is dead, there is permanent loss of consciousness and there can be no person, no personality, even though the organism may still be alive (with a beating heart, and even breathing movements). If the cortex of the brain dead, the person is dead. I suggest that it should be legal to use the organs from the body of the dead person for transplantation."
What's your views?
Yes it probably should be legal. But I worry about the excessive medical intervention in the West, while most people in the world don't have so much as a bandaid.
The other thing is to do with keeping death at bay for excessive lengths of time.
If it were a family member of course my attitude would be 'get an organ, get it now!' So I think most people have a divided attitude to your question.
Hope this helps
Madeleine
Although the heart pumps vital blood throughout the body and if it stops a person will die, the brain has the ultimate power here. A person can be kept 'alive' by machines and intensive medical care to keep the circulation going, but if they have no brain activity then they are clinically dead, and will not regain consciousness. Before a doctor can certify death, they must ensure that the person's brain has ceased function. I think that in situations where a patient is ventilated and is being kept alive without a functioning brain stem, then family should be consulted about organ donation and a descision made about whether to carry on.