Since 1995, the American Academy of Neurology has provided guidelines for brain death determination, but nationwide adherence to these guidelines has been incomplete.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(12):E1027-1032. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.1027.
Although organ donation conflicts with self-interest, because donation is vital to the community, interventions to increase it are ethically justified.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(2):156-162. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.18.2.msoc1-1602.
Judgmentalism applied to patients from poor and marginalized communities exacerbates health inequity and illuminates the importance of contextualizing a patient’s care.
AMA J Ethics. 2021;23(2):E91-96. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.91.
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.