My gut told me to refuse to be an organ donor when I was 16, I'm glad I did. There was a discussion about "brain death" here on Voat and I had a client who was a resident neurosurgeon. I asked him is being Brain Dead a real thing: Paraphrased Answer: It's complicated, brain activity can be hard to measure, it would technically take a long time, maybe a year, to determine with high probability that a person would not be able to recover from a brain injury. However in many cases it's not practical to wait that long. So basically, the hospital will let you die even if there is a chance you are alive. Now, if you want a line I use if asked about organ donation to dodge the question here's what I say: "I am not against organ donation, however I refuse to participate until the system is made equitable. Under the current system celebrities and the rich are given priority over the regular person, like when Mickey Mantle was given multiple liver transplants even though he never quit drinking."