../images/Emo70.gifmoran, you are wrong
Hey Moran, sorry for the English but I'm not in Israel right now. I'm a lecture at ADI and the national transplant center, and would like to make a few facts clear: 1. Vegetative state ("Tzemah") - A person who is in a vegitative state has a malfunctioning part or some parts in his brain. Ariel Sharon, for that matter, is currently in a vegitative state. This situation is reversible - sometimes it takes days, sometimes many years. But a person who is in vegitative state can eventually wake up, thus, he is NOT dead and therefore nobody would even think of taking organs for transplant from this guy 2. Clinical death is a sudden stop of the heart. The brain still functions - if the patient is attended to immidiately (usually the doctors use electrical shocks), he may overcome it as is the case most of the time. This is a temporary state which usually doesn't last long 3. Brain death - Brain death is a case in which the GEZA HAMOAH is dead while all the other organs (including the heart) keep functioning regularly (Their function is kept by machines). Brain death is death for all purposes - legally and, according to most rabbis, halachaic as well. This state is irreversible. One must realise that in case of brain deaths, the organs, even conected to machines which keeps them functioning will eventually- usually after 72 hours, collapse. This is the time window in which organs can be taken out of the body for transplant. since the patient has already been declared dead (As I've mentioned brain death is death to all purposes), it's okay to take some of the organs for transplant if the family approves, and if there's a match. I'd like to call upon everyone who visits this forum who still doesn't have a donors permit card to visit the ADI website and send us the form. http://www.health.gov.il/transplant you can find more information there, or you can always ask me, Dvir
