A new method of harvesting hearts from organ donors is dividing hospitals in America, as surgeons and medical ethicists debate the space between life and death. NYU Langone Health in Manhattan says it was the first hospital to try the new technique in 2020, which involves restoring blood circulation to the heart of a comatose – but not brain-dead – patient after they are declared dead. It could significantly increase the number of hearts available for transplantation. But other hospitals have rejected the procedure, questioning whether restoring blood flow invalidates the earlier declaration of death and asking why surgeons block blood flow from the restored heart to the donor’s brain. One surgeon calls it “creepy”. Around 3,500 heart transplants are performed in America each year; Dr Moazami, the NYU Langone surgeon, tells the NYT that anyone who has faced a patient waiting for an organ would not call him unethical. The NYT piece is worth reading in full.