Being declared dead when you’re still alive – why these very rare events occur
Stephen Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University An 82-year-old woman who was recently pronounced dead at a New York nursing home was later...
New horizons for surrogacy: ‘whole body gestational donation’
It is amazing that no one has ever discussed this at length before. What about all those brain-stem dead female bodies in hospital beds? Why...
The ‘dead donor rule’ takes another one on the chin
Another attack on the dead donor rule comes in this month’s Journal of Medical Ethics. Anthony P. Smith, a philosopher at the University of Utah,...
Always hungry for more organs, transplant surgeons are exploiting — and illuminating — the different standards for determining death
Are you familiar with something called the “partial resurrection” procedure? That’s how MedPage Today referred to it in a recent article. You might suppose it...
New protocol for death of organ donors makes doctors and bioethicists nervous
A new protocol for determining death for transplant surgery has created a controversy amongst surgeons and bioethicists. An article in MedPage Today subtitled “Is it...
UK could revise standards for infant brain death after Baby A experience
Never simple, brain death in UK babies is being reviewed after a 3-month-old baby was declared “brain dead” due to “irreversible cessation of brain stem...
When did Hollywood actress Anne Heche really die?
After a fiery car crash on August 5, Anne Heche, a Hollywood actress who starred in TV shows and films over 30 years, died on...
Back from the dead?
Unsettling accounts of dead people who aren’t dead continue to make headlines. On August 17, in the Mexican town of Salinas, a 3-year-old girl named...