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Legal and Ethical Considerations for Requiring Consent for Apnea Testing in Brain Death Determination
- Source :
- The American Journal of Bioethics. 20:4-16
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Informa UK Limited, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The past decade has witnessed escalating legal and ethical challenges to the diagnosis of death by neurologic criteria (DNC). The legal tactic of demanding consent for the apnea test, if successful, can halt the DNC. However, US law is currently unsettled and inconsistent in this matter. Consent has been required in several trial cases in Montana and Kansas but not in Virginia and Nevada. In this paper, we analyze and evaluate the legal and ethical bases for requiring consent before apnea testing and defend such a requirement by appealing to ethical and legal principles of informed consent and battery and the right to refuse medical treatment. We conclude by considering and rebutting two major objections to a consent requirement for apnea testing: (1) a justice-based objection to allocate scarce resources fairly and (2) a social utility objection that halting the diagnosis of brain death will reduce the number of organ donors.
- Subjects :
- Brain Death
Jurisprudence
Medical treatment
Apnea
Health Policy
Apnea testing
Diagnostic Techniques, Neurological
Diagnostic Techniques, Respiratory System
medicine.disease
United States
humanities
Issues, ethics and legal aspects
Informed consent
Apnea test
medicine
Humans
Death determination
Medical emergency
Organ donation
Justice (ethics)
Psychology
Third-Party Consent
Social utility
health care economics and organizations
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15360075 and 15265161
- Volume :
- 20
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The American Journal of Bioethics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d54482879ba59f74a4f4fd75ea0cf834