I will make clear that the adoption of a brain-oriented concept of death is based on recognizing the primacy of personal human life over merely vegetative human life. I then suggest, taking this underlying rationale to its logical conclusion,
that
brain
death is not total death and not total biological death. Diagnosing death is a medical, not a moral, religional or social-cultural task.
How a corpse is to be treated after death is a task which affects relatives of the dead. The physician has a duty to maintain life. Once he is satisfied beyond doubt that the patient is dead, be has n moral duty to ventilated a cadaver. He can
remove
the mechanical respiratory system from the patient and stop intensive care for the dead.
If we regard death as a process, then we must distinguish the process of dying from the process of death. Death is the event which indicates the moment when the process of dying ceases and the process of disintegration begins. We can allow the
transplant only the organs from the cadaver of the dead.
It is appropriate for korean to continue banning vital organ transplantation, until a full agreement on the fundamental concept of death can be reached and also we have a large consensus of moral certainty among koreans concerning braindeath and
the
transplantation.
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