Doctors debate when to declare organ donors dead

August 13, 2008

A report on three heart transplants involving babies is focusing attention on a touchy issue in the organ donation field: When and how can someone be declared dead? For decades, organs have typically been removed only after doctors determine that a donor’s brain has completely stopped working. In the case of the infants, all three were on life support and showed little brain function, but they didn’t meet the criteria for brain death. (San Francisco Chronicle/AP)