Organ Harvesting

There has always been some doubt and no little debate about when life ends. Is it when the heart stops beating? Is it when the brain stops working? Is it when, after a length of time there is no breath, no heartbeat, nothing. A dead body quickly begins to become corrupted. If organs are to be harvested it is best to do so as soon as possible after death has been confirmed.

Confirmation is reached by the consensus of the attending physicians upon the heart stopping, the brain going dead. And then measures are undertaken to remove the organ or organs that some poor soul whose own organs have failed is awaiting for transplantation to allow him or her a few more years upon this mortal coil.

Some doctors are expressing doubt about the organ harvesting process. That in the process when certain procedures are undertaken, it is possible that those procedures may impel the heart to beat again, or the brain to once again begin functioning. Not at a level where life can be sustained, but momentarily, perhaps.

And in that moment when a dim consciousness can be hazarded to occur, the brain is capable of sending signals to the nerves which send pain messages to the brain as the body is being relieved of specific organs. Would the use of anaesthetics in the removal process be useful, even if those anaesthetics are being used on a presumably dead body?

The latest protocol within the medical community is that organs are removed after the heart has stopped - in Canada that would be five minutes post-stop-of-heart-beat. And the patient is not necessarily brain dead. The apprehension is that when cardiac death is declared, some brain activity may still be present.

And that might translate to the transmission of pain being felt by a comatose body during the organ harvesting. Catheters that pump blood through transplant organs before removal could also initiate blood circulation in the brain, triggering some limited activity in the brain. Doctors are alarmed by these scenarios being bandied about.

Because, obviously, if people become aware of these unpleasant details, they might think twice, and twice yet again, before pledging to become an organ donor. As much as we do know about medical science and the human body, we know less than we think we do. And certainly far less about the human brain.