Faculty Bibliography

Loma Linda's approach has many critics. Some argue that transplant teams must take organs from living children in order to help others to survive. This is irresponsible nonsense. It is true that the absence of a brain makes it impossible to use electrical measurements of brain activity to determine death. Critics say the absence of this test proves that killing is essential. Balderdash! The absence of a brain makes it impossible to measure brain activity. But this does not mean other signs - absence of respiration, dilated pupils, absence of reflexes - will not suffice to announce death's presence

KIE: This Hastings Center Report supplement is derived from the Center's three-year "Ethics and Chronic Illness" project. The project was premised on the idea that chronic illness is a distinctive experience, and that chronic care is different in nature from the acute care that is the current focus of American medicine. In our aging society, the prospect of widespread disability and chronic illness is "a spectre haunting the American health care system." The reality of chronic illness could transform many pervasive assumptions about medical goals and ethics. With this report, the authors intend to stimulate a broader discussion of the ethical issues distinctive to chronic illness, and to outline an agenda for future bioethical investigation. They also hope to articulate the rudiments of a moral vision to guide the health care system, welfare services, families, and communities as they face the challenges of providing chronic care.

The various forms of protection devised by society for human subjects are examined. These are government regulation, informed consent, review at the local institutional level, and legal protection (malpractice suits). The related issue of how to define research is discussed.