Organ donations are hampered because of this ambiguity, says Dr Sunil Shroff.

Death has become a commodity. That was the considered opinion of a participant at a conference on bioethics in Pune on the weekend. As many medical professionals have observed, there is an increasing trend in modern medicine of postponing death with the help of artificial life support.

That is why it is imperative for India to develop a uniform definition of death and a standard method for a doctor to declare a person dead, said Dr Sunil Shroff, the managing trustee of Mohan Foundation, a non-profit organisation working for improving cadaver organ donations in India. Speaking at the conference organised by the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Shroff noted, “Many doctors call it ‘life support’ giving a wrong impression to the patient’s relatives.”….Readmore