Death and the potential organ donor

Abstract 

There is no statutory definition of death in the UK, but death is accepted as the irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness combined with the irreversible loss of the capacity to breathe. Brainstem death is considered equivalent to somatic death. Brainstem death testing is a formalized process divided into three stages: preconditions, exclusions and clinical testing. The confirmation of brainstem death allows for heart-beating organ donation to proceed. The increasing demand for transplantable organs has not been matched by available heart-beating organ donors, leading to renewed interest in non-heart-beating donation. Improved preservation techniques and better assessment of organ function have enabled transplant teams to procure kidneys, livers, lungs and other tissues from non-heart-beating donors. Results from transplanted kidneys show identical five-year survival for organs taken from heart-beating and non-heart-beating donors.

Keywords: brainstem-death testing, death, non-heart-beating donation, organ donor