Comments on Secondhand Smoke: Your 24/7 Seminar on Bioethics and the Importance of Being Human: "Brain Dead" Boy "Dies"

l2 power leveling .We will leave any items and go...

2008-11-20T23:01:00.000-08:00

l2 power leveling .We will leave any items and gold acquired during the Powerleveling service. You keep everything
because our business is 100% service power leveling
cheap based so we do not have any use for your gold or items.

I think it is foolhardy to side with the hospital,...

2008-11-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

I think it is foolhardy to side with the hospital, not because I do not accept the concept of brain death, but because as LM cited, the hospital's actions caused additional suffering to the child's family in their time of grief and support those who would like to impose their own agenda on families via futile care theory. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and dangerous, regardless of the person's condition.

Lydia - 'And we at least don't have to worry too m...

2008-11-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

Lydia -

'And we at least don't have to worry too much about some sort of "night of the living dead" scenario in which we are making it literally impossible for a person's body to die by our technological interventions.'

Too true. I recall from my college days that there was a devout couple who believed that their daughter was still alive, despite being completely brain dead. As in, if they took her off life support, her whole body would shut down, because, well, there were no brain waves of any sort. She was gone.

And yet, her parents were so adament that she was going to recover they fought to keep her on life support indefinitely. At some point, dead is dead. They couldn't stop and face reality.

I feel for M.B.'s parents, and I wish him well. No parent should ever have to bury a child. It's a horrible situation. I don't blame them at all for trying to do right by him, even if there was disagreement about whether the boy was dead or alive. Le sigh. Parents going through that need loving support...

My own mental note from this case is that it made ...

2008-11-17T17:35:00.000-08:00

My own mental note from this case is that it made a difference of only a week, in any event. We were discussing on Nov. 10 the question of how long the controversy even could continue before the family were forced to acknowledge his death. Now, I think this is at least somewhat helpful, because what it says to me is that if we're _not_ interested in organ harvesting, the practical urgency of the issue is much lessened. And we at least don't have to worry too much about some sort of "night of the living dead" scenario in which we are making it literally impossible for a person's body to die by our technological interventions.