In his book “The Undead,” science writer Dick Teresi exposed the fact that brain death is not death.
Here’s how he answered an interviewer’s question about whether better protocols would fix this:
“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.”
When asked whether this was a conspiracy between the transplant community and those who determine when a patient is dead, Teresi answered:
“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 (in 2012) for the transplant business and incomes unheard of in other medical specialties.”