The Ethics Issue Blocking Organ Transplant Research
Doctors have a short window of time to experiment on brain-dead donors to improve procedures—and that's if they can get permission.
As a matter of biology, brain death is catastrophic for the body.
Yes, the heart can still beat and a ventilator can provide oxygen, but there is no brain to coordinate the tasks of staying alive. Hormones that tell organs what to do are out of whack. Inflammatory molecules flood the body. Cells die. “You can see the kidneys don’t work as well, the lungs don’t work was well, and the heart can look stunned,” says Darren Malinoski, a trauma surgeon at Oregon Health and Science University.
There’s nothing to do for the dead patient at this point. But his or her organs can be saved, and because most transplanted organs in the United States come from brain-dead donors, these
