The Irreversibility of Death: Reply to Cole
- 1 June 1993
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Project MUSE in Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
- Vol. 3 (2) , 157-165
- https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.0.0053
Abstract
Professor Cole is correct in his conclusion that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) protocol does not violate requirements of "irreversibility" in criteria of death, but wrong about the reasons. "Irreversible" in this context is best understood not as an ontological or epistemic term, but as an ethical one. Understood that way, the patient declared dead under the protocol is "irreversibly" so, even though resuscitation by medical means is still possible. Nonetheless, the protocol revives difficult questions about our concept of death.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Reversibility and death: a reply to David J ColeJournal of Medical Ethics, 1992
- The Conservative Use of the Brain-Death Criterion - A CritiqueJournal of Medicine and Philosophy, 1984
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