brain-death organ donations

(Newser) - The art of extracting human organs has revived a debate about when a person is actually dead, the Economist reports. Forty years ago, the Catholic Church agreed with scientists that brain dead meant dead. But now that doctors are skirting that rule, harvesting organs from horribly brain-damaged donors who are...

(Newser) - A report on heart transplants involving babies has raised some thorny questions of medical ethics, the Washington Post reports. Hearts were taken from newborns suffering severe brain damage less than two minutes after the babies were disconnected from life support. The hearts saved the lives of terminally ill babies, but...

(Newser) - Charges against a California surgeon for hastening the death of a disabled man so his organs could be harvested for transplants has advocates worried, the New York Times reports. At issue is whether Dr. Hootan Roozrokh ignored protocol in pursuit of organs for transplant or if he misused, or misunderstood,...