Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

290 NICANOR AUSTRIACOtheir efficacy. Why is this? If BD patients are truly dead then whytreat them any differently from cadavers?Critiquing Brain Death: The Argument of AlanShewmon, MDIn the academy, criticism of the TBD criteria originally camefrom advocates who wanted this set of criteria to be replaced bya higher-brain formulation of death. 43 As noted above, this definitionof death, also called the cerebral or neocortical criteria fordeath, would be fulfilled when the individual lost only thoseparts of his brain associated with the “higher” functions of thehuman being including the abilities to think, feel, and reason. Inthe last ten years or so, however, there has been a significant andgrowing opposition to all brain-based criteria for humandeath. 44 One of BD’s most influential critics is Alan Shewmon,MD, professor and chief of pediatric neurology at UCLA.Shewmon’s critique has focused on the proposition that thebrain is the central integrator of the body. Recall that this is anessential premise for the standard paradigm proposed by thePresident’s Commission to justify TBD. Shewmon argues that ifthe brain is not the central integrator of the body, then even totalloss of the brain cannot lead to the loss of physiological integrationthat is indicative of death.43For representative views of this position and citations to the literature,see both of Robert M. VEATCH’S essays: “Whole-Brain, Neocortical, andHigher Brain Related Concepts,” in Death: Beyond Whole-Brain Criteria, ed.Richard M. Zaner (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company,1988), pp. 171-186; and “The Impending Collapse of the Whole-BrainDefinition of Death,” Hastings Center Report 23 (1993): 18-24.44For representative views of this position, see D. Alan SHEWMON, “TheBrain and Somatic Integration: Insights into the Standard BiologicalRationale for Equating “Brain Death” With Death,” Journal of Medicine andPhilosophy 26 (2001): 457-478; and Robert D. TRUOG, “Is It Time to AbandonBrain Death?” Hastings Center Report 27 (1997): 29-37. Also see the essays inBeyond Brain Death: The Case Against Brain Based Criteria for Human Death,ed. Michael Potts, Paul A. Byrne, and Richard G. Nilges (Dordrecht: KluwerAcademic Publishers, 2000).