Pasteur Institute

The 1981 Uniform Determination of Death Act made whole brain death the definition of death itself in the US.  This came after centuries of respiration and heartbeat being the difference between the living and the dead.  But that standard may need a proviso regarding stem cells, as researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Paris have discovered that human stem cells can survive without oxygen for at least 17 days after brain function ceases.  Those cells can also be harvested and cultured into new tissue.  MORE

Image Credit:  Pasteur Institute