Science | baby Harvesting Babies' Organs Scrutinized Critics say hearts removed too soon to be sure donor was dead By Rob Quinn Posted Aug 14, 2008 10:09 AM CDT Copied 21-month-old heart recipient Zachary Apmann plays with his family at The Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colo., Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey) A report on heart transplants involving babies has raised some thorny questions of medical ethics, the Washington Post reports. Hearts were taken from newborns suffering severe brain damage less than two minutes after the babies were disconnected from life support. The hearts saved the lives of terminally ill babies, but critics question whether the donors were truly dead. Transplant advocates have been promoting "donations after cardiac death" in recent years, but the removal of hearts from patients who are not brain dead has troubled some ethicists. Some say the definition of death may need to be changed to make the procedure legal. "This clearly shows the feasibility of doing this," a medical professor said of the first-of-their-kind operations on babies. "The question is: Should this be done?" Read These Next 11 people hurt in a "brutal act of violence" in Michigan. We knew Letterman would pipe up about Colbert eventually. A parent's nightmare, in a white cardboard box. Now we know why Ghislaine Maxwell may have opened up to the DOJ. Report an error