Crit Care. 2005;9(6):538-42. Epub 2005 Oct 31.

Pro/con ethics debate: when is dead really dead?

Whetstine L, Streat S, Darwin M, Crippen D.

Source

Health Care Ethics Center, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA. lwhets6623@aol.com

Abstract

Contemporary intensive care unit (ICU) medicine has complicated the issue of what constitutes death in a life support environment. Not only is the distinction between sapient life and prolongation of vital signs blurred but the concept of death itself has been made more complex. The demand for organs to facilitate transplantation promotes a strong incentive to define clinical death in a manner that most effectively supplies that demand. We consider the problem of defining death in the ICU as a function of viable organ availability for transplantation.

PMID:: 16356234; [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMCID:: PMC1414041

Free PMC Article

MeSH Terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Other Literature Sources

Medical

Supplemental Content

Save items

Click here to read article using PubReader

Related citations in PubMed

Review Death revisited: rethinking death and the dead donor rule. [J Med Philos. 2010]
Review Death revisited: rethinking death and the dead donor rule.
Iltis AS, Cherry MJ. J Med Philos. 2010 Jun; 35(3):223-41. Epub 2010 May 9.
Review The dead donor rule: can it withstand critical scrutiny? [J Med Philos. 2010]
Review The dead donor rule: can it withstand critical scrutiny?
Miller FG, Truog RD, Brock DW. J Med Philos. 2010 Jun; 35(3):299-312. Epub 2010 May 3.
Review Life, death, and solid organ transplantation without brain death. [Crit Care Med. 1993]
Review Life, death, and solid organ transplantation without brain death.
Fackler JC, Truog RD. Crit Care Med. 1993 Sep; 21(9 Suppl):S356-7.
The persistent vegetative state. [Transplant Proc. 1990]
The persistent vegetative state.
Ivan LP. Transplant Proc. 1990 Jun; 22(3):993-4.
Review Withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies and brain death in the intensive care unit. [Semin Neurol. 2008]
Review Withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies and brain death in the intensive care unit.
Varelas PN, Abdelhak T, Hacein-Bey L. Semin Neurol. 2008 Nov; 28(5):726-35. Epub 2008 Dec 29.

See reviews... See all...

Cited by 3 PubMed Central articles

Bioethicists must rethink the concept of death: the idea of brain death is not appropriate for cryopreservation. [Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2012]
Bioethicists must rethink the concept of death: the idea of brain death is not appropriate for cryopreservation.
Cohen C. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2012; 67(2):93-4.
Donation after cardiocirculatory death: a call for a moratorium pending full public disclosure and fully informed consent. [Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2011]
Donation after cardiocirculatory death: a call for a moratorium pending full public disclosure and fully informed consent.
Joffe AR, Carcillo J, Anton N, deCaen A, Han YY, Bell MJ, Maffei FA, Sullivan J, Thomas J, Garcia-Guerra G. Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2011 Dec 29; 6:17. Epub 2011 Dec 29.
Ethics review: dark angels--the problem of death in intensive care. [Crit Care. 2007]
Ethics review: dark angels--the problem of death in intensive care.
Crippen DW, Whetstine LM. Crit Care. 2007; 11(1):202.

Related information

Related Citations
Calculated set of PubMed citations closely related to the selected article(s) retrieved using a word weight algorithm. Related articles are displayed in ranked order from most to least relevant, with the “linked from” citation displayed first.
References for this PMC Article
Citation referenced in PubMed article. Only valid for PubMed citations that are also in PMC.
Free in PMC
Free full text articles in PMC
Cited in PMC
Full-text articles in the PubMed Central Database that cite the current articles.

Recent activity

Clear Turn Off Turn On

Pro/con ethics debate: when is dead really dead?
Pro/con ethics debate: when is dead really dead?
Crit Care. 2005 ;9(6):538-42. Epub 2005 Oct 31 .

PubMed

Your browsing activity is empty.

Activity recording is turned off.

Turn recording back on

PubMed

Result Filters

Display Settings:

Send to:

Pro/con ethics debate: when is dead really dead?

Source

Abstract

MeSH Terms

MeSH Terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Other Literature Sources

Medical

Supplemental Content

Save items

Related citations in PubMed

Cited by 3 PubMed Central articles

Related information

Recent activity

Simple NCBI Directory

Getting Started

Resources

Popular

Featured

NCBI Information