Not dead yet

22 September 2017 News Odyssey An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)
RenewAmerica.com | Paul A. Byrne, MD | September 21, 2017

Jahi McMath is alive in New Jersey. A death certificate was issued on Jahi on December 12, 2013. Now, four years later a judge in California has ruled that Jahi may not be dead. Think about it, alive, living in New Jersey! Why is it necessary for a judge to rule whether Jahi is alive or dead?

The judge is acting in accord with the law in California and the practice of medicine since "brain death," while scientifically and medically still controversial, is legally protected.

Neither the CA statute nor the practice of medicine ought to be significantly different in any other state in recognizing the basic difference between a living person with a beating heart and circulation albeit on a ventilator vs. the remains of a dead body. What is the "problem"?

There is no problem in New Jersey because although alone among the 50 states, New Jersey law rightly recognizes that the person cannot be declared "brain dead" if the family objects to the doctors using ONLY "brain death" criteria, and not the time-honored, universally recognized irreversible cessation of circulation and respiration. What is the problem?...

Read more

Other resources:

Surprising Realities of Brain Death and Organ Donation

Current definition of death challenged

05 September 2017 News Odyssey An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)
bioedge.org | Xavier Symons | 2 Sep 2017
VIP Bird2.jpg
By Brian Hall - Own work, Public Domain, Link

A new article in the Journal of Medical Ethics challenges conventional accounts of human death, and calls for a “new consensus” on the ethics of vital organ transplantation.

Bioethicists Michael Nair-Collins, of Florida State University College, and Frank Miller, of Weill Cornell Medical College, assert that patients who are brain dead may nevertheless be said to have retained the integrated functioning characteristic of human life. This is the case even when the patient is supposedly “dependent” on a ventilator.

The authors observe that that mechanical interventions (such as a ventilator) do not in and of themselves allow for the functioning of the lungs and heart -- other natural bodily operations play and equally important causal role…

The corollary to this is that the ethical justification for organ procurement from brain dead patients is undercut…

The authors suggest that “a new consensus” must be reached on the ethics of vital organ transplantation -- “one which is not premised on demonstrably false claims about the vital status of biologically living patients”. Read more

Angel fish
Public Domain, Link

...and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ... the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind ...the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. -Genesis 1

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A SistersSite eBook

Flesh and Bone and The Protestant Conscience is an e-book on Amazon.com. It is 99¢ and in the Amazon lending library as well. It is also available here in PDF format. The book description follows.

Would you let your conscience be your guide?

Does God care if the skin and bone of the dead are passed along to the living for medical uses? Is organ donation OK with God? Should you sign a Living Will?

Did you know that dead organ donors are often anesthetized before their organs are removed? Do you know the current definition of death? The conscience cannot function without facts.

As we ponder the ethics of in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and man-made chimeras, our thoughts trail off. How then should we live? (Ez 33:10)

How should a Christian think about euthanasia by starvation when doctors and the state attorney general all agree it is time to withhold feeding from a brain injured patient? Some things are family matters, but someday it may be our family.

Here is a small book to help you think about whether you want to sign your driver's license, donate a kidney, cremate your loved one, and many other practical questions that may arise in the course of your healthcare decisions or watch over others.

It offers a special focus on the doctrine of the Resurrection that is related to such decisions. Sunday School classes and Bible Study groups could use this book to facilitate discussion about the issues covered.

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