…as with so many aspects of contemporary life, modern medicine overtook religious tradition. In 1981, a presidential commission set “brain death”””the end of all brain activity, including involuntary acts such as responding to pain””as the determination of life’s end. That definition became the standard in all 50 states and in many other countries, and religious communities generally lined up behind it.
But some Christian and Jewish leaders have recently been raising doubts about brain death. A 2008 front-page article in the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano called for revisiting the brain death definition. It echoed the sentiments of many pro-lifers who felt that the dying were losing out to a desire to cut medical costs or the urgent need for donated organs.