Death’s legal definition must be responsive to advances in technology, and it must delineate between life and death. Knowing where to draw the line is difficult.
AMA J Ethics. 2020; 22(12):E1055-1061. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.1055.
Amy Scharf, MS, Louis Voigt, MD, Santosha Vardhana, MD, PhD, Konstantina Matsoukas, MLIS, Lisa M. Wall, PhD, RN, CNS, AOCNS, HEC-C, Maria Arevalo, RN, OCN, and Lisa C. Diamond, MD, MPH
Patients’ cultural, religious, and social norms deserve respect, but some decisions’ effects on patients’ outcomes can be unjust and ethically troubling.
AMA J Ethics. 2021; 23(2):E97-108. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.97.
Dr Ariane Lewis discusses how we can navigate uncertainty and ambiguity about brain death by understanding clinical criteria for brain death determination and how our approaches to death are culturally and socially situated.