Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Accepting Brain Death


Two cases in which patients have been determined to be dead according to neurologic criteria (“brain death”) have recently garnered national headlines. In Oakland, California, Jahi McMath's death was determined by means of multiple independent neurologic examinations, including one ordered by a court. Her family refused to accept that she had died and went to court to prevent physicians at Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland from discontinuing ventilator support. Per a court-supervised agreement, the body was given to the family 3 weeks after the initial determination. The family's attorney stated that ventilatory support was continued and nutritional support added at an undisclosed location.

Read full article: Accepting Brain Death

David C. Magnus, Ph.D., Benjamin S. Wilfond, M.D., and Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D.
February 5, 2014DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1400930

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