Determining death, when minutes matter Death, so the maxim goes,
is one of life's certainties. But in this era of high-tech
medical interventions, determining the precise moment of death
isn't always cut-and-dried. That determination is vitally
important, however, when the deceased could be an organ donor.
Organs: Medical experts all around the world are now taking a
closer look at the length of time doctors should wait to
determine death before organs are removed for transplantation.
One of those experts is Dr. James Bernat, a Dartmouth
neurologist and a national authority on medical ethics. Most
vital organ transplants come from donors after they've
experienced brain death. "The brain-dead donor is the ideal
organ donor because circulation continues," Bernat explains. "So
the organs are perfused by the beating heart up to the very
moment that they're procured." Over the last two decades,
however, "donation after circulatory death" (DCD) has become
increasingly common. In such cases, organs are removed from