This Element considers current legal, ethical, metaphysical, and medical controversies concerning brain death. It examines the implicit metaphysical and moral commitments and dualism implied by neurological criteria for death. When these commitments and worldview are not shared by patients and surrogates, they give rise to distrust in healthcare providers and systems, and to injustice, particularly when medicolegal definitions of death are coercively imposed on those who reject them. Ethical obligations to respect persons and patient autonomy, promote patient-centered care, foster and maintain trust, and respond to the demands of justice provide compelling ethical reasons for recognizing reasonable objections. Each section illustrates how seemingly academic debates about brain death have real, on-the-ground implications for patients and their families.
| ISBN: | 9781009517218 |
| Publication date: | 21st March 2024 |
| Author: | L Syd M Johnson |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 75 pages |
| Series: | Cambridge Elements. Elements in Bioethics and Neuroethics |
| Genres: |
Sociology: death and dying Medical ethics and professional conduct Bioethics Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge Coping with / advice about death and bereavement Social law and Medical law |