OOH we havent doen this in a while
I’m not sure what you mean by change halacha see Yoma 85a.
There are poskim who allowed brain death at least in theory if not practice.
As an aside does anybody know of a posek who doesn’t allow a person to receive a heart transplant?
Thanks
As to your question
“So I’m wondering, are medical staff truly clueless or are they simply blinded by the prospect of doing some transplants to save others, organ donor be damned?”
PArtly the former. Though the bigger problem is lack of understanding among laypeople regarding “brain death” which is often used interchangably with coma and persistive vegetative state. I dont know if this patient was actually declared brain dead or not media reports dont mean much though of course it is possible she was declared.
See for example a recent AMI piece on brain death where the author wrote “… Doctors where convinced that many of those who where breathing and whose blood was still circulating were really dead beacuse their brain function had ceased entirely.” and ” … patients who are brain-dead but whose circulatory and respiratory symptoms are still working.”
I assume this fellow researched his article yet he does not understand the abc’s of brain death. By definition a brain dead pateitn is not breathing rather a ventilator is breathing for him. By defintiion if he can breathe he isnt brain dead. Yet ths mistake is repeatedly made even by somehwat knowledgeable people.