ANOTHER BRAIN DEATH MISDIAGNOSIS:  A 19 year-old woman in Denmark was pronounced brain dead and her parents consented to having her organs donated. The respirator was removed.  She didn’t die.  She is now undergoing rehab and may make a full recovery.

Think this is a one-off?  It’s not, as I explore in my book, The Law of Life & Death (Harvard 2011) [shameless plug, I know, but it’s relevant!].  As with the vegetative state, misdiagnosis is more common than the medical community admits–exactly how common is not known.  There is far more about the human brain that medical science just does not presently know.  For this reason, after researching my book, I am not an organ donor.