*** Welcome to piglix ***

Beating heart cadaver


A beating heart cadaver is a body that is pronounced dead in all medical and legal definitions, connected to a medical ventilator, and retains cardio-pulmonary functions. This keeps the organs of the body, including the heart, functioning and alive. As a result, the period of time in which the organs may be used for transplantation is extended. The heart contains pacemaker cells that will cause the heart to continue beating even when a patient is brain-dead. Other organs in the body do not have this capability and need the brain to be functioning to send signals to the organs to carry out their functions. A beating heart cadaver requires a ventilator to provide oxygen to its blood, but the heart will continue to beat on its own even in the absence of brain activity. This allows organs to be preserved for a longer period of time in the case of a transplant or donation. A small number of cases in recent years indicate that it can also be implemented for a brain-dead pregnant woman to reach the full term of her pregnancy. There is an advantage to beating heart cadaver organ donation because doctors are able to see the vitals of the organs and tell if they are stable and functioning before transplanting to an ailing patient. This is not possible in a donation from someone pronounced dead. There is a stigma around beating heart cadavers regarding the accuracy doctors have in pronouncing someone brain dead due to recent discoveries of brain activity in subjects that were classified as “brain-dead”. In addition, the organ donation world is desperate to widen its pool of donors to meet the ever increasing demand from heightened rates of organ destroying diseases. As diseases progress, the functionality of organs is diminished and for some, a new organ is the only chance of survival. Heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory disease are among the leading causes of death worldwide and each condition could be improved if a new organ is received. However, some argue that using another person’s body purely as a means to an end, dehumanizes the patient.

The observed phenomena of lifelike qualities after death is not a new concept. In René Descartes' Discourse on the Methods he notes that decapitated animals move and display characteristics of a living body a few seconds after decapitation which was published in 1637. This continued into the French Revolution where it was observed that people who had been beheaded showed movements in facial muscles and hearts could continue to beat for almost an hour past the time of beheading. The guillotine in some cases did not completely sever head from body. In 1875 an examiner named Pierre Jean Cabanis was assigned the duty of making sure a body was truly dead. There were also stories involving beheadings where the victims would stand up and walk around before falling dead. The ambiguity around brain death and true death has followed it to present day. In an effort to clarify some of these gray areas, the Harvard Medical Committee developed criteria for identifying a body as dead in 1968. These criteria required patients to be completely unaware and unresponsive to external stimuli, have no spontaneous muscle movements, and exhibit no reflexive response even when manipulated. They also required that an electroencephalography (EEG) show no signs of activity. The purpose of this report was to encourage physicians to distinguish brain death and irreversible coma from a persistent vegetative state where the patient still has some awareness and cycles through sleep and wakefulness


...
Wikipedia

...