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New England Journal of Medicine: 'Brain Death' is not Death - Organ Donors are Alive
LifeSiteNews ^ | 8/14/08 | John-Henry Westen

Posted on 08/15/2008 5:32:34 AM PDT by wagglebee

BOSTON, August 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an article that is sure to rock the world of organ donation, the highly respected New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has backed up the objections of various pro-life groups, as well as some scientists and physicians, to certain types of organ donation which involve the removal of vital organs from patients believed to be dead. The problem, say the authors of the NEJM article, is that in many cases these patients may not be dead at all. 

Key experts in the medical field have, since its inception, considered the 1968 invention of 'brain death' and the more recent criteria of 'cardiac death' as unsupportable criteria for true death.  If it is true, however, that brain death and cardiac death are invalid as criteria for true death, it would make morally illicit vital organ donation, since such donation would in some cases result directly in the killing of the donor for the purpose of harvesting his organs. 

The two authors of the article in the NEJM, both proponents of organ donation, argue that "as an ethical requirement for organ donation, the dead donor rule has required unnecessary and unsupportable revisions of the definition of death."

The article was co-authored by Dr. Robert D. Truog, a professor of medical ethics and anesthesia (pediatrics) in the Departments of Anesthesia and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston and Dr. Franklin G. Miller, a faculty member in the Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

The many cases hitting the media of patients pronounced 'brain dead' and living to tell their stories have already led the public to question the notion of 'brain death'.  A recent case in France where a patient revived on the operating table as surgeons were about to remove his organs, is only the latest in a string of such events.  (see: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061308.html )

Troug and Miller, after admitting that the scientific literature does not support the criteria for 'brain death' and 'cardiac death' as being real death, suggest instead that ethicists should simply remove the requirement for dead donors.  "The uncomfortable conclusion to be drawn from this literature is that although it may be perfectly ethical to remove vital organs for transplantation from patients who satisfy the diagnostic criteria of brain death, the reason it is ethical cannot be that we are convinced they are really dead," they write.

Similarly they note that with 'cardiac death', "although it may be ethical to remove vital organs from these patients, we believe that the reason it is ethical cannot convincingly be that the donors are dead."  Troug and Miller suggest that, rather than insisting on dead donors, "ethical requirements of organ donation" should be looked at "in terms of valid informed consent under the limited conditions of devastating neurologic injury."

However, the dead donor criteria is precisely the thing that most moral ethicists agree makes it ethical to remove vital organs for transplant. Doing otherwise would constitute actively killing a person via removal of their vital organs. 

In his August 29, 2000 address to the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society, Pope John Paul II stressed: "vital organs which occur singly in the body can be removed only after death, that is from the body of someone who is certainly dead."  He added: "This requirement is self-evident, since to act otherwise would mean intentionally to cause the death of the donor in disposing of his organs." (see the full address here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2000... )

Now that a prominent medical journal has come out and stated that brain death and cardiac death are invalid criteria for true death, some are hoping that the Catholic Church, which has not issued a formal position on vital organ donation, will officially come out in opposition to the practice - a practice which takes place in many Catholic hospitals throughout the world.

"The setting out of these facts should by all rights lead to a cessation of complete removal of any vital organ at Catholic hospitals", said Dr. John Shea, medical consultant to LifeSiteNews.com, who has written extensively on the subject of organ donation.

See the article from the NEJM online here:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/7/674?query=TOC



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: healthcare; moralabsolutes; organdonation; prolife
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To: wagglebee
Now that a prominent medical journal has come out and stated that brain death and cardiac death are invalid criteria for true death, some are hoping....

Au contraire,


21 posted on 08/15/2008 6:11:14 AM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: wagglebee
This brought me thoughts of the film Awake, part of which involved an aware patient on an operating table undergoing surgery. Quite a good film.
22 posted on 08/15/2008 6:11:48 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze
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To: jboot; fireforeffect; wagglebee

I’m remembering a book where people convicted of various crimes were sent to live on an island prison where their organs were harvested over time as needed. Can you guys remember it?


23 posted on 08/15/2008 6:29:42 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: yankeedame
Question: If "...brain death and cardiac death are invalid criteria for true death" than pray tell what is?

Death is a process, not an event. It makes things difficult as we try to decide what point in that process constitutes death.

24 posted on 08/15/2008 6:33:58 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: wagglebee

Remember the young guy who woke up before they began???? He’s a happy camper.(early summer, late spring)


25 posted on 08/15/2008 6:37:20 AM PDT by floriduh voter ( Florida's Governor Crist has roined Floriduh but he's having fun so what the hey?)
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To: wagglebee

I heard it on ABC and CNN. So much for burying the news.


26 posted on 08/15/2008 6:37:29 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: antiRepublicrat

Your 23 is modern day China.


27 posted on 08/15/2008 6:38:26 AM PDT by floriduh voter ( Florida's Governor Crist has roined Floriduh but he's having fun so what the hey?)
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To: Bobalu

I can assure everyone that you will not want my organs in the event of my untimely demise. They have been well used, and there will be very little life left in them.


28 posted on 08/15/2008 6:39:13 AM PDT by Ouderkirk (I will not vote for Obama not because he is black, but because he is RED)
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To: fetal heart beats by 21st day
I have refused to be an organ donor,

Eventually, we won't have a choice in the matter.

29 posted on 08/15/2008 6:39:52 AM PDT by Spirochete
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To: Red Badger

Sorry, I meant the dialog, not the picture.


30 posted on 08/15/2008 6:43:03 AM PDT by Steve0113 (Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. -A.L.)
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To: jboot
The Gil the A.R.M. story cycle to be specific, although there are echos of it in most of Niven's other universes. Well worth a read (as are all the Known Space stories), if you can find any of it. I think it has been out of print for a while.

I remember Niven's A Gift From Earth

A probe from earth delivered organ cloning technology to colonists at Tau Ceti. It caused a revolt and overthrow of the tyrannical organ harvesting government there.

31 posted on 08/15/2008 6:45:17 AM PDT by Spirochete
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To: wagglebee

BUMP


32 posted on 08/15/2008 6:48:33 AM PDT by Dante3
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To: wagglebee

What I find interesting is the number of doctors I know who refuse to be organ donors. What do they know/understand that the rest of us don’t?


33 posted on 08/15/2008 6:57:39 AM PDT by RayBob (If guns kill people, can I blame misspelled words on my keyboard?)
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To: RayBob
What do they know/understand that the rest of us don’t?

I have heard that many ERs WILL NOT go to the lengths to save a known organ donor that they will to save a non-donor.

34 posted on 08/15/2008 7:02:36 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
Aren't organs a private matter? Wouldn't that be an assault and battery, to take a living person's organs? I'd like to see THAT prosecuted!

Thinking of China's organ donations policy makes me ill.

35 posted on 08/15/2008 7:17:59 AM PDT by elk
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Comment #36 Removed by Moderator

To: wagglebee

Holy mackeral. This is incredible.


37 posted on 08/15/2008 7:24:18 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Red Badger

I FEEL HAPPY! I FEEL HAPPY!


38 posted on 08/15/2008 7:28:23 AM PDT by Huck (A Teddy Roosevelt wannabe is better than a Che Guevara wannabe.)
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To: wagglebee

So if cardiac death is not true death, and if brain death is not true death, what IS true death? Putrefaction?

I’m serious. Anybody here who can enlighten me in layman’s terms?


39 posted on 08/15/2008 7:40:23 AM PDT by Jedidah
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To: wagglebee
I have heard that many ERs WILL NOT go to the lengths to save a known organ donor that they will to save a non-donor.

Not true.Being a known organ donor doesn't enter into it.Many factors do...age....underlying medical issues (e.g,patient with advanced cancer,etc)....nature/extent of injuries/illness and others and sometimes family's wishes.But not organ donation.

40 posted on 08/15/2008 7:54:15 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Obama:"Ich bin ein beginner")
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