Objective: To determine if university students consider the donation after cardiac death donor as dead., Design: Survey., Setting: University students., Participants: Medical (n = 142) and nursing (n = 76) students in a medical ethics class and philosophy students (n = 102)., Intervention: Survey during class time with four patient scenarios in which a decision was made to donate organs after 5 min of absent circulation., Measurements and Results: Half the surveys had brief background information, and half had more detailed background information. Responses between groups were compared using the Chi-square statistic. The response rate of 320 students was 100%. In each scenario, 42-51% of those given detailed information strongly agree or agree that the patient is 'definitely dead', versus 55-58% given brief information (ns). When asked in what state this patient is, 26-30% given detailed information chose "dead," versus 41-45% given brief information (P < 0.025). Thirty-six to 39% given detailed information strongly agree or agree that the physician was truthful informing the family that at 5 min of absent circulation the patient is definitely dead, versus 48-52% given brief information (P < 0.01). On at least one of the scenarios, 65% of those given detailed information, and 50% of those given brief information responded uncertain, disagree, or strongly disagree that the patient is definitely dead (P < 0.01). Medical students were significantly less likely to agree that the patients in the scenarios were "dead," or that the physicians were being truthful in describing the patients as dead., Conclusions: Most respondents were not confident that a donation after cardiac death donor was actually dead.