Q.It seems like a lot of the concerns you raise could be at least partially alleviated by more rigorous training and implementation of protocols about determining brain death. Do you agree, or would that not be going far enough?

A.Not really. It’s true that as much as 65 percent of brain death exams are done incorrectly, and many doctors could not list the criteria for brain death correctly. Doctors I talked to said not to worry about patients moving about on the table or their blood pressure or heart rate spiking during harvest. These were just post-death reflexes, not an indication of pain or awareness. And yet the Harvard Criteria, the ur-text of brain death published in 1968, specifically state that there should be no reflexes and no movement. But the bigger problem is that brain death as death per se is a fiction. There is no scientific purpose for brain death. It’s a serious, serious kind of coma, but not death. It was made death for practical reasons. The heart of a brain-dead person still beats, and circulates blood to the organs, keeping them fresh for their future owners. And though the 1981 UDDA (Uniform Determination of Death Act) states that the “whole brain” must be dead, the whole brain is rarely tested. Usually, only activity in the brain stem is tested, not the cortex or higher structures of the brain, where consciousness, pain, and pleasure are interpreted.

Q.Do you see an active conspiracy between the transplant community and those who determine when a patient is dead?

A.Conspiracy is such a harsh word. Let’s say there’s a happy confluence of coincidences that results in $27 billion of revenue per year for the transplant business and incomes unheard of in other medical specialties. On average, a solid, internal organ transplant generates $650,000 all down the line. There are humanitarian reasons to push the envelope also. There are 113,000 people presently waiting for someone to die and leave them an organ, and transplant doctors value these patients and want to help them. The donors? Not so much.

Originally posted by Unity_99
reply to post by Starwise

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But, his painting in his office, black and white checkerboard floors, and sheep really alerted me to his mystery school knowledge.

Oh, and he slipped in that they were going to use a experimental new drug on me that would enable me to forget the whole surgery, so as to reduce trauma. I said NO to that.