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The Magisterium has given us a rich and complex reflection on the question of donating organs, the nodal point being the equivalence, or not, between brain death and human death. It would appear that Pius XII did not accept such an equivalence. If there were doubt, the principle of in dubio pro vita should be applied. John-Paul II advocated that transplantation should be adjourned in the presence of doubt. The dilemma, of which the Pope was well aware, is the fact of retrieving an organ from a person who, because of its removal, cannot possibly continue to live. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, following the Magisterium of John-Paul II, accepted the new definition of death in terms of cerebral activity. Benedict XVI would appear to be operating a shift in direction, as did Cardinal Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne only recently.