•  25
    Death Lost in Translation
    American Journal of Bioethics 23 (2): 17-19. 2023.
    We thank Nielsen Busch and Mjaaland for their article on the dead donor rule (Nielsen Busch and Mjaaland 2023). We would like to take this opportunity to go beyond the dead donor rule in order to r...
  •  52
    The ethical obligation of the dead donor rule
    with Daniel P. Sulmasy and James L. Bernat
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 23 (1): 43-50. 2020.
    The dead donor rule (DDR) originally stated that organ donors must not be killed by and for organ donation. Scholars later added the requirement that vital organs should not be procured before death. Some now argue that the DDR is breached in donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD) programs. DCDD programs do not breach the original version of the DDR because vital organs are procured only after circulation has ceased permanently as a consequence of withdrawal of life-sustaining …Read more
  •  7
    In the context of deceased organ donation, donors are routinely tested for HIV, to check for suitability for organ donation. This article examines whether a donor’s HIV status should be disclosed to the donor’s next of kin.On the one hand, confidentiality requires that sensitive information not be disclosed, and a duty to respect confidentiality may persist after death. On the other hand, breaching confidentiality may benefit third parties at risk of having been infected by the organ donor, as i…Read more
  •  14
    The ethics of semantics in medicine
    with David Shaw and Alex Manara
    Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (12): 1026-1031. 2022.
    In this paper, we discuss the largely neglected topic of semantics in medicine and the associated ethical issues. We analyse several key medical terms from the informed perspective of the healthcare professional, the lay perspective of the patient and the patient’s family, and the descriptive perspective of what the term actually signifies objectively. The choice of a particular medical term may deliver different meanings when viewed from these differing perspectives. Consequently, several ethic…Read more
  •  186
    Neuroethics, Consciousness and Death: Where Objective Knowledge Meets Subjective Experience
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (4): 259-261. 2022.
    Laura Specker Sullivan (2022) makes a fairly compelling case for the value of the perspectives of Buddhist practitioners in neuroethics. In this study, Tibetan Buddhist monks have been asked, among other things, whether consciousness, in brain-injured patients in a minimally conscious state, entails a duty to preserve life. In our view, some of the participants’ responses could be used to inform the bioethical debate on death determination.
  •  374
    Inconsistency between the Circulatory and the Brain Criteria of Death in the Uniform Determination of Death Act
    with Alberto Molina-Pérez, James L. Bernat, and Anne Dalle Ave
    Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 48 (5): 422-433. 2023.
    The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) provides that “an individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead.” We show that the UDDA contains two conflicting interpretations of the phrase “cessation of functions.” By one interpretation, what matters for the determination of death is the cessation of spontaneous functions only, regardless…Read more
  •  31
    Aligning the Criterion and Tests for Brain Death
    with James L. Bernat
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 28 (4): 635-641. 2019.
    Abstract:Disturbing cases continue to be published of patients declared brain dead who later were found to have a few intact brain functions. We address the reasons for the mismatch between the whole-brain criterion and brain death tests, and suggest solutions. Many of the cases result from diagnostic errors in brain death determination. Others probably result from a tiny amount of residual blood flow to the brain despite intracranial circulatory arrest. Strategies to lessen the mismatch include…Read more
  •  46
    An analysis of heart donation after circulatory determination of death
    with David Shaw and James L. Bernat
    Journal of Medical Ethics 42 (5): 312-317. 2016.