Q: What is  “Dead Donor Rule” (DDR)?

Answer: DDR seems simple but it continued to remain a controversial point in medical ethics. DDR implies that a person must be dead before their organs can be taken. This death is considered to be determined by cardiocirculatory criteria,  according to which life-support is withdrawn, an specific time interval of the monitored absence of pulse, blood pressure, and respiration observed, and then death declared. The most accepted time interval in US is according to The Pittsburgh Protocol which requires 2 minutes.


Reference:

Bernat JL (2008). "The boundaries of organ donation after circulatory death". New England Journal of Medicine. 359 (7): 671.