Pro/con ethics debate: When is dead really dead?

DOI

10.1186/cc3894

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

12-1-2005

Publication Title

Critical Care

Volume

9

Issue

6

First Page

538

Last Page

542

ISSN

13648535

Abstract

Contemporary intensive care unit (ICU) medicine has complicated the issue of what constitutes death in a life support environment. Not only is the distinction between sapient life and prolongation of vital signs blurred but the concept of death itself has been made more complex. The demand for organs to facilitate transplantation promotes a strong incentive to define clinical death in a manner that most effectively supplies that demand. We consider the problem of defining death in the ICU as a function of viable organ availability for transplantation. © 2005 BioMed Central Ltd.

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