GEH 102

Granahan and Segall

Questions for “The Prolongation of Life” and “A Definition of Irreversible Coma”
(Rothman 417-25)

1. Does Pius XII believe that the physician is under a moral obligation to initiate or prolong artificial respiration if the patient’s vital functions have ceased?

2. According to Pius XII, does one have the right, or is one even under the obligation, to use modern artificial-respiration equipment in all cases, even those which, in the doctor’s judgment are completely hopeless?

3. What term does Pius XII ascribe to a person who is unconscious through central paralysis for several days -- showing no improvement -- but whose blood circulation is maintained through artificial respiration? (The person is considered “                ”)

4. According to Pius XII, is a person who is unconscious through central paralysis considered dead even if his/her blood circulation has not stopped?

5. In the 1960s, a Harvard committee of physicians, ethicists, and other experts redefined ___________?

6. This committee rejected the notion that death was signaled by ___________________?

7. Rather, they reconceptualized death as an event contingent on _______________________________________________________________________?

8. Why did this committee argue that this new criterion was needed?

9. What immensely complicated the issues surrounding brain death?

10. The eroticization of death was a predominant theme in _____________________________?

11. When an individual whose heart continues to beat but whose brain is irreversibly damaged remains on life support, it can burden who/what:     (list four) ____________________________________________________________________________?

12. Obsolete criteria for the definition of death can lead to controversy in obtaining _________ for transplantation.

13. Briefly state the three characteristics of a permanently nonfunctioning brain.

14. A patient’s condition (of a permanently nonfunctioning brain) can be determined only by ________________ . (According to the article.)

15. Does the failure of the heart always mark the onset of death?

16. Should the patient be declared dead before or after the respirator is turned off?

17. The law makes the assumption that the medial criteria for determining death are ________ and not in _________ among physicians.