ABSTRACT
The Harvard committee established four criteria, now called the Harvard criteria GPSEFUFSNJOJOHXIFOTPNFPOFXBTCSBJOEFBE #FFDIFS 4FF'JHVSF The first three of the Harvard criteria are similar to the traditional indicators for clinical death: unreceptiveness and unresponsiveness; lack of spontaneous respiration and NVTDMFNPWFNFOU BOEBCTFODFPG SFGMFYFT FH UP MJHIU BOEQBJO #FFDIFS The last criteria specifically relates to activity within the brain itself-the lack of electrical impulses in the brain. You may have noticed that the Harvard ad hoc committee adopted a “whole brain” definition of brain death, which includes the functioning of the brain stem (responsible for regulating involuntary life-sustaining activities) as well as UIFOFPDPSUFY BTTPDJBUFEXJUIIJHIFSNFOUBMGVODUJPOT #FFDIFS
"GUFSUIFJOJUJBMGMVSSZPGJOUFSFTUJOIFBSUUSBOTQMBOUBUJPOJOUIFMBUFT QSPGFTTJPOBM interest in doing heart transplants waned, largely owing to problems of tissue rejection #BEPOF 5IFSFDJQJFOUCPEZXPVMESFDPHOJ[FEPOPSUJTTVFBTGPSFJHO*O when the immune suppressant cyclosporine came on the market, the rejection of donor tissue could be effectively managed. Interest in performing heart transplants resumed. Although the “Harvard criteria” were regarded as reliable, concern about a definition for brain death persisted. It soon became clear that a better consensus definition was needed.
