Past Programs
Death - 2002
Brain Death
23/06/2002
The organ transplant industry has given life to thousands of people. But it has also given us a new type of human: the beating heart cadaver, whose cerebral functions have shut down, but whose blood is still circulating in order to keep vital organs fresh. Until the early 1970s, such a person would have been considered alive. But since the concept of brain death was introduced, we now have to grapple with a new set of ethical questions and a new understanding of what it means to be human.
