Answer
The so-called dead donor rule (DDR) requires a donor to be dead before organ procurement can begin, and that organ procurement itself does not cause death. However there are several "kinds' of death-- clinical death , legal death and biological death and cardiovascular death.
Clinical or legal death:
a. The heart of the patient has stopped beating and the patient has stopped breathing.
. A patient is considered to be biologically dead six minutes (four to six) after the cessation of
cardiopulmonary functions
These definitions , of course, are not universally accepted, though they facilitate organ donation.
Work Step by Step
A more widely accepted definition of clinico-legal death has the following requirements:
--no brain waves for 24 hours
--no reflexes
--no heart beat
A patient who satisfies these requirements can be declared legally dead.
The Uniform Definition of Death Act (1980) states that a person is dead if his/her cardiopulmonary functions have ceased irreversibly, and he/she has experienced irreversible cessation of all brain functions --including activity of the brain stem .
There is still controversy in medical and legal circles regarding the most useful a nonmaleficent definition of death. It is clear, however, that biological death and clinical death are not the same. The cells and organs of a patient may remain alive up to six minutes after clinical death. After cardiovascular death the vital organs quickly become useless for transplantation, but the tissues such as skin, bone and cornea may be harvested for transplantation up to 24 hours after clinical death.
