Death Determination by Neurologic Criteria (eBook)

This book presents principal controversies over the determination of death by neurologic criteria ('brain death'). The editors and authors are exceedingly well-versed in this subject and are on the forefront of the current debates. The content is divided in the following disciplinary: philosophical (conceptual), medical, scientific, legal, religious, and ethical/social. Many of the topics feature pro-con debates, allowing readers to consider the merits of the arguments and decide their own position. The work is targeted to clinicians and nurses who treat critically ill and dying patients, organ donation personnel, ethicists and philosophers who write on end-of-life issues, and lawyers and legislative/public policy professionals who draft laws on death determination. It identifies and debates the essential controversies currently raging in academic and public policy circles over the medical adequacy, scientific validity, and conceptual coherence of death determination by neurologic criteria. Whether a professional or a student, the reader will be given a comprehensive course in the most pressing controversies and areas of consensus in the determination of death by neurologic criteria.

Dr. Ariane Lewis is Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Director of Neurocritical Care at NYU Langone Medical Center.  She served on the Steering Committee for the World Brain Death Project. She was an observer on the Uniform Law Commission Study Committee and Drafting Committee on Updating the Uniform Determination of Death Act and an International Advisor to the Canadian Critical Care Society Definition and Determination of Death Committee.  She was Past-Chair of the Neurocritical Care Society Ethics Committee and is a member of the American Academy of Neurology Ethics, Law and Humanities Committee and the American Academy of Neurology Brain Death Working Group. She was recognized as a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and a Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society for her clinical and scholarly leadership in neurology and neurocritical care.

James L. Bernat, M.D. is Professor of Neurology, Active Emeritus at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine where he has been Professor for 33 years. Formerly, he was the Louis and Ruth Frank Professor of Neuroscience at Dartmouth. He is the former Chair of the American Academy of Neurology Ethics, Law & Humanities Committee. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, and the Hastings Center. He served as an observer on the Uniform Law Commission Study Committee and Drafting Committee to update the Uniform Determination of Death Act. His principal book is Ethical Issues in Neurology, 3rd ed. (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008). Over the past 40 years, he has authored numerous articles and chapters on death determination by neurological criteria and the definition of death.