What are beating heart cadavers?
A beating heart cadaver is a person who is clinically brain dead, but being kept alive for the purpose of organ transplant surgery. There is huge ethical debate within the medical community about what is considered “dead” and what is considered “alive”. As such, a beating heart cadaver is someone who has no chance or hope of ever coming out of a vegetative state or someone who has suffered brain death and is being kept alive artificially. Debate rages over whether or not the soul of a person is still present if their heart is still beating, and if it is unethical to perform surgery on a person for organ donation whilst they are still technically alive.
