Circulatory Death Donation Practices Under Scrutiny

Circulatory death donation is different. These patients are on life support, often in a coma.

Their prognoses are more of a medical judgment call. They are alive, with some brain

activity, but doctors have determined that they are near death and won’t recover.

If relatives agree to donation, doctors withdraw life support and wait for the patient’s

heart to stop. This has to happen within an hour or two for the organs to be considered

viable. After the person is declared dead, surgeons go in. The Times found

that some organ procurement organizations — the nonprofits in each state that have federal contracts

to coordinate transplants — are aggressively pursuing circulatory death donors and pushing families