If we accept that it is wrong to kill a person to harvest organs, then a person must be considered dead for organ harvesting to proceed. But, for organs to be useful blood must be circulating through the organs pretty well right up until organ harvesting begins.
In the Bible there is a distinction between the blood of someone who is alive and the blood of a dead man. Revelation 16:3 reads,
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man (Revelation 16:3a, NKJV)
In this verse, the Bible compares something to “the blood of a dead man.” … Read the rest
Recently, a reader of this blog ask me some questions about substitute decision making. There are some important things to consider with this aspect of medical care. So I am starting a new thread that I am calling “Living Wills.” The topic of substutute or surrogate decision making is related to living wills. As with most of my blog posts, I will tackle the topic in small chunks.
More than once I have had patients tell me that they never want me to put them in a nursing home. … Read the rest
When someone is clearly alive we tend to understand.
We also tend to understand when someone is clearly dead and ready to bury. There is no brain function, there is no movement in the body (including no breathing) and there is no flow of blood (the heart is not beating). Other signs of life are gone as well. the body is cold, dry, pale, either stiff with rigor mortis or flaccid.
Dying is a period of time between living and death. … Read the rest
I have already Commented on the question, Are those who fail to pass brain stem function tests really dead? (read blog entry Organ-donation – Are Brain Dead Really Dead?) In this entry I would like to consider another approach to the claim that those who are brain dead are really dead.
The argument accepts the biblical view that when a person is dead then the neurologic (brain), circulatory (heart), and respiratory (Lungs) systems are each dead.
In order to maintain the biblical requirement for death, the argument goes something like this. … Read the rest
Worldview and Ethical Issues from a Biblical Perspective
