<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>For more than thirty years, in most of the world, the irreversible cessation of all brain function, more commonly known as brain death, has been accepted as a criterion of death. Yet the philosophical basis on which this understanding of death was originally grounded has been undermined by the long-term maintenance of bodily functions in brain dead patients. More recently, the American case of Jahi McMath has cast doubt on whether the standard tests for diagnosing brain death exclude a condition in which the patient is not dead, but in a minimally conscious state. I argue that the evidence now clearly shows that brain death is not equivalent to the death of the human organism. We therefore face a choice: either we stop removing vital organs from brain dead patients, or we accept that it is not wrong to kill an innocent human who has irreversibly lost consciousness.</p></abstract>

For more than thirty years, in most of the world, the irreversible cessation of all brain function, more commonly known as brain death, has been accepted as a criterion of death. Yet the philosophical basis on which this understanding of death was originally grounded has been undermined by the long-term maintenance of bodily functions in brain dead patients. More recently, the American case of Jahi McMath has cast doubt on whether the standard tests for diagnosing brain death exclude a condition in which the patient is not dead, but in a minimally conscious state. I argue that the evidence now clearly shows that brain death is not equivalent to the death of the human organism. We therefore face a choice: either we stop removing vital organs from brain dead patients, or we accept that it is not wrong to kill an innocent human who has irreversibly lost consciousness.

The challenge of brain death for the sanctity of life ethic

Ethics & Bioethics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The challenge of brain death for the sanctity of life ethic"}

For more than thirty years, in most of the world, the irreversible cessation of all brain function, more commonly known as brain death, has been accepted as a...

The challenge of brain death for the sanctity of life ethic

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 153 - 165

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2018-0012

Keywords
definition of death, brain death, sanctity of life, organ transplantation, Jahi McMath

© 2018 Peter Singer, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The challenge of brain death for the sanctity of life ethic

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 153 - 165

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2018-0012

Keywordsdefinition of death, brain death, sanctity of life, organ transplantation, Jahi McMath

© 2018 Peter Singer, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
definition of death, brain death, sanctity of life, organ transplantation, Jahi McMath