I just heard John M. Haas is the President of The National Catholic Bioethics Center give what I thought was a misleading interview on brain death on EWTN. I was surprised at his facile dismissal of two cases. And, I felt that he misquoted Blessed John Paul II on what constitutes death.
Simply put, rigor mortis is the only sign of real death. There seems to be confusion at very high levels on this issue, because of the liberal push for harvesting organs.
I suggest you listen to Fr. Chad Ripperger on this. The Church absolutely has a say as to when death occurs if only after the fact. The entire industry of organ harvesting and the push of people out of hospitals has lead to some Catholics being cavalier about death.
We must always err on the side of life and I publicly challenge EWTN to have a spokesperson from the American Life League, who disagrees with Haas to show the sides and complications of this argument.