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It Is Time to Abandon the Dogma That Brain Death Is Biological Death
Author(s) -
Miller Franklin G.,
NairCollins Michael,
Truog Robert D.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.1002/hast.1268
Subject(s) - organ donation , doctrine , brain dead , time of death , organ transplantation , transplantation , medicine , intensive care medicine , psychology , law , medical emergency , surgery , political science
Drawing on a recent case report of a pregnant, brain‐dead woman who gave birth to a healthy child after over seven months of intensive care treatment, this essay rejects the established doctrine in medicine that brain death constitutes the biological death of the human being. The essay describes three policy options with respect to determination of death and vital organ transplantation in the case of patients who are irreversibly comatose but remain biologically alive .