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Leslie Weikle on August 3, 2025

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Paula URQUHART

#news Cardiologists at a New York hospital say we need to expand the definition of death so more organs can be donated #newyork The three cardiologists at Northwell Health in New York: Sandeep Jauhar, Snehal Patel, and Deane Smith wrote an article " Organs Are Too Rare. We Need a New Definition of... View More#news Cardiologists at a New York hospital say we need to expand the definition of death so more organs can be donated #newyork The three cardiologists at Northwell Health in New York: Sandeep Jauhar, Snehal Patel, and Deane Smith wrote an article " Organs Are Too Rare. We Need a New Definition of Death" They argue for expanding the legal and medical definition of brain death to include patients who have permanently lost higher brain functions like consciousness, memory, intention, and desire, even if lower brainstem functions are working normally. However, Up to 40% of vegetative state diagnoses are incorrect, and 15% of comatose patients show "covert consciousness" via advanced testing. Even so, they claim, this would increase the pool of viable organ donors, addressing the shortage of transplantable organs in the U.S., where an estimated 15 people die each day waiting for an organ. From the article "Death is not simply a biological fact, but it’s also a social choice." "The brain functions that matter most to life are those such as consciousness, memory, intention and desire. Once those higher brain functions are irreversibly gone, is it not fair to say that a person has ceased to exist?" "We need to broaden the definition of brain death to include irreversibly comatose patients on life support. Using this definition, these patients would be legally dead regardless of whether a machine restored the beating of their heart." "it remains possible to responsibly determine whether someone is irreversibly comatose." The authors acknowledge risks, such as cases where patients show signs of life during DCD calling it a "catastrophe" but "rare." They reference a July 20, 2025, NYT investigative report ("A Push for More Organ Transplants Is Putting Donors at Risk") about premature or bungled DCD attempts, including patients in Alabama, New Mexico, Florida, and West Virginia who showed signs of life. That piece highlighted pressure from organ procurement organizations (OPOs) to increase transplants, leading to aggressive pursuits and ethical lapses, with 55 medical workers reporting disturbances. However, the op-ed downplays these as outliers,

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1 August 3, 2025