I was so honored to be interviewed by Polly Tommey on CHD-TV this morning. Polly knows someone who was declared brain dead, but who thankfully woke up before organs could be harvested. Thus, we share a passion for fully informed medical consent regarding organ donation.
In this segment, I discuss:
the redefinition of death by the 1968 Harvard ad hoc Committee
the 1981 Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA)
the recent "brain death" cases of Terrance Howard and Amber Ebanks
why GIP (global ischemic penumbra) means that there can NEVER be certainty about a brain death examination
the recent article in Chest stating that "were all families to be made fully aware and truly informed [about brain death], one would find very large numbers of people objecting, and that would create needless conflict and chaos." Hiding the truth on the grounds that people might disagree is dishonesty of the highest degree.
that an author of the brain death guidelines admitted in 2006 that "The diagnosis of brain death is driven by whether there is a transplantation programme (sic) or whether there are transplantation surgeons. I do not think brain death examination now, in practice, would have much if any meaning if it were not for the sake of transplantation."
the newest American Academy of Neurology brain death guideline which admits there is "a lack of high quality evidence" about brain death, and which explicitly allows a declaration of brain death in the presence of continuing partial brain function.
the fact that the way doctors are told to diagnose brain death currently does not comply with the law under the UDDA, leaving doctors and hospitals open to lawsuits.
my recommendation that no one be a registered organ donor and instead register a refusal to donate in their electronic medical record, given the lack of medical, moral, and legal legitimacy of the brain death diagnosis.
The entire episode is excellent, and includes a live update from the hospital room of Alexis Lorenze, who was severely injured recently after mandated vaccinations. But CHD-TV has also prepared a link to just my segment of the show here:
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