Brain Death in Organ Donations

There has been a lot of debate concerning brain death within organ donations. This means whether the person is actually alive or dead when the doctors decide to harvest the organs. Some people and even organizations argue why it is they believe an individual is alive during the process while others argue why the donor isn’t alive. This essay shows the different positions of people and organizations regarding brain death.

Dr. Paul A. Byrne, a neonatologist and a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, claims that brain death is not true death for a person, doctors just want to harvest the organs so they claim a person is dead when they’re really not: “Patients are declared brain dead in order to harvest their organs.” The true death is the removal of the organs, Byrne says: “Every donor is killed in the process.” Byrne also says that doctors aren’t able to take the organs out of someone who is truly dead because organ damage occurs after circulation has stopped. Therefore, the person is still alive when the removal of organs takes place. Byrne supports his claim, that brain death isn’t true death, by providing evidence about a young man from Oklahoma, Zach Dunlap, who was declared brain dead. However, his cousin who was one of his nurses, recognized a response after four hours of being declared dead by scraping a knife on the bottom of his foot. Dunlap wasn’t truly dead although he had been declared dead. He even said he could hear everything the doctors were saying but couldn’t yell for help due to his head injury. By telling the story of a person who had this happen to him, Byrne is showing that there is actual evidence that people who are declared brain dead might not actually be dead and that doctors should be better at checking whether a person is truly brain dead or not. The story of Zach Dunlap appeared on newscasts, websites, and shows; such as NBC News, the Today