How can organs be used from a dead person for transplant?

Question

This issue has always puzzled me! If somebody is dead, how can their organs still be used for transplant in somebody that needs them? Don't all body functions, including organs, suddenly stop working when somebody dies?

Thanks for your input.

Answer 1

I think they have to be removed before the person is actually dead. like if they know you a re going to die, andyou are listed as a donor, they will take them from you. can't after the fact.

Answer 2

Jennifer C is not right.

Nonessential organs can be taken from the living, but if you take a vital from a living person, that would technically be some form of murder.  Organs are taken from thoe  who have recently died.  The organs themselves can still function, but because the brain is dead when someone dies, there is nothing to tell the organ to function.  When the organ is transplanted, the alive brain tells the organ to function normally.  

Organs for transplant have a time limit before they become unusable, so it's important to stay on top of things if you're waiting for an organ.

Answer 3

"hiphop anonymous" is getting close, but still not 100% correct either.  Let me see if I can explain this in an easy-to-understand fashion.

There was a time when all organ donations were done with non-heart-beating donors.  However, cells inside vital organs (such as the kidneys or the liver) started to die within minutes of the heart stopping beating, so often by the time the organs were transplanted, there would be significant damage to the organs, resulting in less successful transplantations.

In the 1970's, most Western countries began to recognize brain deaths.  This means a person can be considered legally dead, even though his/her heart may still be beating.  (Kind of gross if you are not in the medical business.)  Since the heart is still beating, all vital organs continue to receive circulation, and thus will be fully functional for transplantation -- if the deceased happens to be an organ donor.

Unlike what "hiphop anonymous" said, with modern ICU care, a brain-dead body can be kept in working order for days, sometimes weeks.  However, due to respect for the deceased, a body is only kept "working" long enough for organ donation.  (If the deceased is not an organ donor, the ICU team will shut off the life support machines, allowing the body to die naturally.)

Anyway, as you can imagine, brain deaths happen quite rarely -- mostly with severe head injury caused by car accidents, or with bleeding inside the brain caused by a ruptured aneurysm.  This is why there is such an organ shortage, even though tons of people die every year -- most of them die the "conventional, heart-stop-beating" kind of death.  Their organs cannot be used for transplantation, even if they signed their organ donor cards while alive.

Some tissues (like cornea and heart valves) can be donated from non-heart-beating donors, because these tissues don't start dying when the heart stops beating.  Still, most of the time these tissues are retrieved within 24 hours of death to ensure "freshness".

Finally, due to the severe shortage of organs, some transplant doctors started doing non-heart-beating organ donation again.  However, it is limited to "controlled donors" -- people who happen to die while under close observation in a hospital, and thus can be rushed to the operating room for organ retrieval within MINUTES of the heart stopping beating.

Hope this helps.