Death
Having discussed the concept of life and suffering in Buddhism let us now turn to the related concept of death. As already discussed, death is an essential part of the human predicament. It is one of the conditioned and conditioning factors of the cycle of causes and effects (samsara) in which human beings exist. It is also shown that death is one of the central causes of the suffering of human existence.
Brain death and organ transplantation
Buddhism defines death in terms of the concepts of impermanence (anicca) and insubstantiality (anatta). The standard definition of death in Buddhist texts describes death as "the falling away, the passing away, the separation, the disappearance, the mortality of dying, the action of time, the breaking up of the aggregates, the laying down of the body."15 In this definition death is seen as the total dissolution of the five aggregates, the factors constituting the individual.
This Buddhist view of death is congruent with the concept of total brain death in the present discussion. The ceasing of the functioning of the high cortex does not constitute "death" in Buddhism. By recognizing that dying is a process and not an event such a total brain death view allows for a window of opportunity for the taking of organs for transplantation. It also provides protection against the pre-mature removal of organs. The ceasing of the functioning of the high cortex alone is only the death of the cortex and not of all other vital organs