[palmer]

If it is determined--through a series of stimuli and non-responses--that the organs are not functioning via feedback loop with the most primitive brain, the integrated whole is deemed lost, and organ harvesting is authorized.

Thanks for the ping MHG. Medicine can revive people even after the clinical death described above if the blood supply to the brain has not been cut off for too long. This is an moral use of science even if that person is not able to resume a completely normal life. We value human life regardless of physical or mental capabilities.

[MHGinTN]

Actually, palmer, once a vegitative state is reached or irreversible coma, medical science cannot revive the patient ... only God can at that point (though some medical people have claimed to have revived someone at that level of degredation in higher brain functioning ... perhaps hocndoc can correct me here). What the vegitative state shows however is that the integrated whole is still functioning. When the death protocol is concluded, it is determeined whether the 'feedback loop' is still working, if not, the parient is dead.