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As the article says, “A person can be dead in one state and alive in another.” The fact is that the problem is greater even than that. Definitions of brain death differ from one place to another, possibly even from one hospital or physician to another. In principle, the Church supports organ donation, including donation of unpaired vital organs with one fundamental requirement, the donor must be dead. So the dead donor rule is the fundamental consideration in the morality of organ donation. St. John Paul II wrote that the neurological criteria (whole brain death) satisfied the requirement, but the concept is still debated. A great deal of paper has been used in debating this matter and some question the advice that the Pope received. I would say that the Pope’s acceptance of brain death was nuanced and that he intended quite clearly that the requirements for establishing brain death, irreversible cessation of all brain function, would be rigorously held. Some consider the concept to be too restrictive. Others are deeply critical of the idea of taking a beating heart from a person who is dead by any definition. There are very good Catholics on both sides of the debate. This is not an easy thing to sort out. Most people would find the literature to be very difficult to follow. It is important, however, that Catholics recognize the problems with the criteria for establishing death. The fact that organ donation is a generous act does not compensate for ending the life of the donor by the removal of organs.

Click here to go to a recent article on revising th so-called Uniform Definition of Death Act.