How soon is too soon for harvesting organs? In ethical terms, that is. A debate is raging in Canada following reports that some doctors are waiting just 75 seconds after a heart stops beating to begin their job.

The "dead donor rule" says an organ donor should be brain dead before any organs are removed for transplant.

Under a fairly new and controversial approach, families are being asked to allow organs to be taken after cardiac death, meaning doctors would wait for the heart to stop beating after life support is removed — and ignoring the brain activity, reports CBC News.

Time is crucial because the longer an oxygen-starved heart stays in a warm body, the lower the chances of a successful transplant.

Society needs to consider whether these patients are dead, said Dr. Kerry Bowman of the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics. While Bowman is not opposed to donating after cardiac death, he is worried the definition of death is being massaged.
"I think the pull and the need for organs is so strong that it could easily encourage critical care physicians to consider the declaration of death potentially sooner than they normally would," said Bowman.

The issue was debated in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, which includes a report on three cases where doctors waited three minutes or less to remove the hearts of dying newborns who had severe brain damage, but were not brain dead.