This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Doyle, D. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Doyle, D. J.
Related Collections
Right arrow End-of-life decisions
Right arrow Organ donation
CMAJ • August 7, 2001; 165 (3)
© 2001 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

Letters
Correspondance

Debating the criteria for brain death

D. John Doyle

Department of Anesthesia University of Toronto Toronto, Ont.

The article on the bioethics of brain death by Neil Lazar and colleagues does a superb job of covering the basic issues.1 However, one important situation that the authors do not discuss concerns the patient with a massive head injury who meets the criteria for brain death imperfectly, perhaps because a small patch of neurons in a brain-stem nucleus are still operating. In real-world clinical practice such patients have zero chance of survival and so are withdrawn from life support, their organs going to waste.

Reference

  1. Lazar NM, Shernie S, Webster GC, Dickens BM. Bioethics for clinicians: 24. Brain death. CMAJ 2001;164(6):833-6. [Abstract/Free Full Text]




This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Doyle, D. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Doyle, D. J.
Related Collections
Right arrow End-of-life decisions
Right arrow Organ donation