Bobby Schindler

Dr. Joseph M. Eble: Can Unity on The Issue of ‘Brain Death’ be Achieved Among Catholics?


(The Catholic World Report) – On February 27-28, 2025, a Symposium on “brain death” was held at The Catholic University of America titled “Integrity in the Concept and Determination of Brain Death: Recent Challenges in Medicine, Law, and Ethics .”

Questions addressed at the Symposium included:

How/Can we ensure, with moral certitude, that patients determined to be dead by neurologic criteria are dead according to the standards of a sound Christian anthropology and the law? [emphasis added]

How/Can testing protocols for brain death be improved to accurately, consistently, and efficiently identify which patients are dead by neurologic criteria and which are not? [emphasis added]

As these questions indicate, there is vigorous disagreement among Catholics whether 1) “brain death” truly represents the death of the human person and 2) if it does represent death, whether it can accurately be determined in clinical practice. CONTINUE

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