How long to leave a body undisturbed after death? When someone dies (is pronounced dead, e.g. no heart-beat) then hospital staff will want to move the body to a refrigerated morgue.

If you are next-of-kin, then when (after how long) is it right to give them permission to do that? Is it alright to do that nearly immediately, or, should you ask them to delay doing that, and if so for how long?

This reference says,


  Different Buddhist cultures (Western, Tibetan, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Sri Lankan etc. have different lengths of time that they don't move the body and keep vigil and do prayers). 


How long is an appropriate length of time to ask for, for example in a Western hospital or hospice?

How much time/delay, if any, does the dying person need?

Should you wait for a certain length of time (number of hours after the recorded time of death)? Or wait for some specific, measurable/observable physical symptom, for example the (internal body and/or external skin) temperature cooling to some specific temperature?

The same page says,


  The Clear Light State can last for few minutes (where there is much disease or in accidents) or 3 days (recommended waiting time) or longer in accomplished meditators.


I imagine that leaving the body undisturbed for three days might be unacceptable in a Western hospital.



The conclusion to Buddhism and organ donation suggests that organ donation is compatible with Buddhism. If that's true, how is that compatible/reconciled with the view that the body should not be disturbed/touched after death?
The site urbandharma.org mentions that the body should be kept for about 3 days.


  Immediately following signs of physical death, Buddhists believe that it is best to keep the body in a peaceful state. Traditionally, the body is taken to the home and for a period of 3 days or so, the body is not touched and extensive prayers are said. This facilitates the process of the person’s consciousness letting go of its prior body and life and all of its attachments and more easily moving to the next.


http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/health.html

The exact number of days may vary from tradition to tradition.