Playing God: A Moral Dilemma

I pronounced my patient dead at 3:47 AM knowing his heart was still beating.

The transplant team was already scrubbing in two floors up. A nineteen year old girl was dying

and his brain dead body was her only chance. His family hadn't arrived yet.

I had maybe eight minutes before they walked through those doors. Every second his

organs stayed warm increased her survival rate. The law said brain death equals legal

death. My conscience said I was playing God. I falsified the time.

Called it. The harvest began. His mother showed up at 3:55 screaming to say goodbye.

I told her he was already gone. Technically true. Morally destroying me.