Alex Schadenberg: Re-Defining Death

On July 23 I wrote about The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) media release from July 21, 2025 concerning the organ transplant system in the United States. The US Health and Human Services examined 351 organ donation approvals and determined that in 103 cases their were concerns that the dead donor rule may have been violated.

Organ donation is a difficult topic to write about since organ donation can save lives. I have been writing about issues related to organ donation for many years. It is a scandal that death is sometimes caused by organ removal rather than organs being retrieved from a dead donor. 

In 2023, an effort to legitimize harvesting organs from living people was prevented when the Uniform Law Commission stopped the effort to revise the UDDA. The revision to the UDDA was designed to give legal cover when organs are taken from people who have not yet died but have an irreversible condition.

On July 31, Wesley Smith published an article about a group of physicians who wrote an article that was published in the New York Times calling for the re-definition of death. If they redefine death, then organs can be taken from live donors who have been declared dead. Smith wrote: