Why Is Death Important

Why is the definition of death an important question for the issue of donation and transplantation?
The definition of death is an important question for the issue of donation and transplantation for several reasons, but most importantly, because doctors may only harvest organs after a person has died because otherwise they are going against the medical principle of Primum non nocere meaning “first, do no harm”. This means that doctors must wait until a person is fully dead before removing organs as otherwise they would be inflicting harm on a patient, not removing organs from a corpse. Therefore this medical principle of Primum non noncere requires doctors to know when a person is dead. Therefore the definition of death is an important question
Up until 1968 the fourth edition of Black’s Law Dictionary defined death as “…Total stoppage of the circulation of the blood, and a cessation of the animal and vital functions consequent thereupon, such as respiration, pulsation, etc.” This definition is commonly known as ‘body death’, whereby a person’s body could be seen to no longer function, resulting in death. However, this definition poses problems, one of which is highlighted by Glanville Williams who discusses a hypothetical case that poses legal difficulties due to the ‘body death’ definition of death. The case explores the issue surrounding whether it is murder to stab a body that had stopped beating but could have been revived. The problem it poses is that technically the man simply had an illegal interface with a corpse, not murder, which if the definition of death was different, the case would have seen the man been accused with murder. This problem with the definition of ‘Body death’ is a problem for the issue of donation and transplantation because it can justify doctors giving up on patients too early, because they know the organs could be donated, therefore saving more people that were dying, as evident in the Pittsburgh Protocol (1993), which is undoubtedly wrong, if the person still has a chance of returning to full functionality, for the doctor to declare a person ‘body dead’ and therefore
Elective Ventilation is the procedure of putting a dying person on life support to keep their organs preserved for longer, in short, prolonging a donor’s inevitable death, in order to increase the chances of success of transplantation, as all organs deteriorate the longer they are out of a body, and some organs such as the heart, can be substantially damaged in the time between removal and transplantation. This poses a problem for donation and transplantation as under ‘body death’ the donor is still alive, as their heart is still beating, which to many, implies the doctor is killing the patient by taking away life support in order to donate, therefore not upholding the principle of Primum non nocere. This whole issue raises the question previously raised by Jonathan Glover of whether we believe ‘being alive is intrinsically valuable’ or whether ‘being conscious is intrinsically valuable’ as under the latter, Elective Ventilation is acceptable, allowing a higher chance of saving life, unlike the first, an opinion held by many religions under the premise of “sanctity of life”. Therefore the definition of death is an important question for the issue of donation and