The National Catholic Bioethics Center, a longtime supporter of ‘brain death,’ finally admitted that many so-called ‘brain dead’ people still have neuroendocrine function, though its defense of vulnerable patients doesn’t go nearly far enough.
The physician-patient relationship has suffered because doctors are being trained to see people with severe brain injuries as 'good as dead,' rather than valuing their humanity.
'Brain death' survivors prove that the diagnosis can be made in error, and that using these people for medical experimentation on this basis is ethically unjustified.
The concept of ‘brain death’ is factually baseless, but powerful medical organizations like the American Academy of Neurology are imposing it on America, threatening the lives of brain-injured people.
Using the controversial NRP-cDCD method, doctors are able to harvest patients’ organs after removing life support and while the patient is considered ‘brain-dead,’ despite the potential for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Current standards for brain death 'do not provide moral (prudential) certainty of death' and often categorize persons who are not fully brain dead as being legally dead, the authors warn.
‘Death is not whatever an echo chamber of experts says it is,’ said Dr. Heidi Klessig. ‘The criteria for brain death have been revised repeatedly without scientific evidence.’
Since brain death determinations lead to organ donation or a withdrawal of life-sustaining measures, therefore a determination of brain death, when the person isn't brain dead, will almost certainly result in death.