Dead Enough?: The Paradox of Brain Death
"I have to admit that despite all I know about brain death, I still have my moments of uncertainty. More than once, when I have pulled my scalpel across the warm, pliable skin of a donor and seen the exuberant reds of well-oxygenated bleeding, my mother's old nagging doubts have insinuated themselves into my forebrain. I have found myself thinking about the donors' lives and asking the nurses who have met their families what they were like.
As I push aside the still contracting intestines and inadvertently brush my hands against the remnants of the previous day's meal within, I cannot help but think about that last meal and whether the donors and the people they were with had any inkling of the near future.
More than once, as I have procured organs, I have had my doubts. But it was not that, like my mother, I was afraid that these donors were not dead enough; it was that I regretted having to keep them so alive."
Speaking of warm gooey cookies:
"The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them."
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