Is it ethical to continue life support in brain-dead patients so others may live?
I was working in a trauma room. A patient was brought in who had been shot through the head. Although he had vital signs, he was hemorrhaging rapidly through the wound. There was wide destruction of his brain tissue; much of it had spilled out on the stretcher. My immediate reaction was, “This poor person has died.” Any intervention at that point seemed futile. Then another doctor who was present ordered blood. I was shocked and asked, “Why?” The doctor replied, “Perhaps he will be an organ donor.” We aggressively resuscitated a person who was demonstrably beyond saving with large volumes of blood, ventilator support and other means on the chance that we would find a family member in time to ask if he would be a donor. Was it right to treat the patient in front of us—who was functionally dead and moments from being without vital signs—as a potential source for an organ harvest? If the two physicians agreed that the patient could clearly not be saved, it would be ethically acceptable to
