I FULLY agreed with Ms Lim Lih Mei that many people believe that "death equates to the heart ceasing to beat" ("Change of heart needed to stop organ wastage"; March 25).
It is a common belief among many laymen that within one's body, there exists an entity known variously as the soul, spirit or consciousness, depending on one's faith.
When death occurs, this entity is believed to leave the body for another world - to heaven or hell, or to be reincarnated or reborn as another being in human, animal or some other form.
From the medical and legal point of view, brain death constitutes death, but this is often very difficult for families to accept as the body of their loved one is still warm and the heart is still beating.
Many still subscribe to the belief that even when one is dead, that entity may not have dispersed immediately, and thus they have a wake period of three to five days before disposing of the body.
Until a layman is convinced that brain death equates to conventional death, it would be an uphill task to harvest organs for transplant.
Chin Kee Thou
It is a common belief among many laymen that within one's body, there exists an entity known variously as the soul, spirit or consciousness, depending on one's faith.
When death occurs, this entity is believed to leave the body for another world - to heaven or hell, or to be reincarnated or reborn as another being in human, animal or some other form.
From the medical and legal point of view, brain death constitutes death, but this is often very difficult for families to accept as the body of their loved one is still warm and the heart is still beating.
Many still subscribe to the belief that even when one is dead, that entity may not have dispersed immediately, and thus they have a wake period of three to five days before disposing of the body.
Until a layman is convinced that brain death equates to conventional death, it would be an uphill task to harvest organs for transplant.
Chin Kee Thou
