title: Pro/con ethics debate: when is dead really dead?
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.
authors.affiliation: Health Care Ethics Center, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA. lwhets6623@aol.com
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Whetstine
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Streat
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Darwin
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Crippen
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003422:Critical Care / Q000941:ethics*; D003643:Death; D005066:Euthanasia, Passive / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000941:ethics*; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000941:ethics; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States