Category: Brain Death

Brain death? New transplant protocol blurs the line between life and death.

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition An article by Randy Dotinga, that was published on September 28 by Medpage Today examines a new “brain death” protocol that blurs the line between life and death. Dotinga explains: With little attention or debate, transplant surgeons across the country are experimenting with a kind of partial resurrection: They’re …

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UK could revise standards for infant brain death after Baby A experience 

By Michael Cook  Never simple, brain death in UK babies is being reviewed after a 3-month-old baby was declared “brain dead” due to “irreversible cessation of brain stem functioning” – yet started to breathe independently. According to Clare Dyer in the BMJ, Joe Brierley, a pediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital, was appointed to study …

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Once again, UK lawyers duel over ‘brain dead’ youngster 

By Michael Cook The United Kingdom is once again debating brain death. In recent years there have been several high-profile disputes between parents who want to keep their child alive and the National Health Service. Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, Pippa Knight , and  are the best-known names. At the centre of the latest heart-rending fight …

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Once again, UK lawyers duel over ‘brain dead’ youngster 

By Michael Cook The United Kingdom is once again debating brain death. In recent years there have been several high-profile disputes between parents who want to keep their child alive and the National Health Service. Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, Pippa Knight , and are the best-known names. At the centre of the latest heart-rending fight …

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U of Michigan “just killed my son,” mother says. Hospital yanks life support hours after judge dismisses case

By Paul Smeaton ANN ARBOR, Michigan, October 16, 2019 – Bobby Reyes, a 14-year-old boy from Michigan who doctors declared “brain dead,” died yesterday after a judge dismissed his family’s court case asking he be given more time. The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital removed his ventilator just hours later. The case was …

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“Brain-dead” Portuguese woman gives birth

By Michael Cook A Portuguese woman who has been “brain dead” since December last year gave birth to a son late last month. Twenty-six-year-old Catarina Sequeira, a canoeing champion who had represented her country, suffered a serious asthma attack at home on December 26 when she was 19 weeks pregnant. For 56 days a ventilator …

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Is an Ontario woman dead or is she alive?

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director – Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The case concerning a woman who has been declared brain dead by a Brampton hospital is heading to the court of appeal. The issue at hand is the definition of brain death. Taquisha McKitty (27) of Brampton Ontario, was declared brain dead on September 20, 2017, …

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‘Brain Dead’ child in India improves after receiving specialized therapy

Father had requested euthanasia By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director – Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Apoorva Mandhani reporting for Livelaw.in that a “brain dead” boy, whose father had asked the court to approve euthanasia, has been improving. The father was not asking for a lethal injection but rather the withdrawal of basic care. The father recently “approached …

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Jahi McMath dies June 22, posthumous report says she improved after she was declared brain-dead

By Dave Andrusko Jahi McMath, the teenager at the heart of a determined and courageous fight waged by her parents against a brain-death diagnosis , passed away June 22 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., “of bleeding due to liver failure and a brain injury caused by lack of oxygen,” according …

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New Jersey boy whose family had fought to keep him on life-support dies on Saturday

By Dave Andrusko On May 23, NRL News Today wrote about two New Jersey families who were fighting to keep their sons on life-support, cases which bore a striking resemblance to Alfie Evans. Both were gamely fighting against Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia [CHOP] which was determined to take the boys on their ventilators on the …

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About to “pull the plug,” shocked doctors stop when woman suddenly wiggles her big toe

By Dave Andrusko How many times have you read a story about an accident–typically a car accident–in which the victim is labeled “brain dead”? And how many times, as was the case recently with 22-year-old Sam Hemming after being in a drug-induced coma for 19 days, doctors tell her family there is “no hope of …

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