The challenge of brain death for the sanctity of life ethic

Peter Singer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)153-165
Number of pages13
JournalEthics and Bioethics (in Central Europe)
Volume8
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Education
  • Philosophy
  • Health Policy

Keywords

  • Jahi McMath
  • brain death
  • definition of death
  • organ transplantation
  • sanctity of life

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