While brain death has played a positive role in allowing the procurement of lifesaving organs, it raises concerns when it is treated as a social, biological, and legal fact to the detriment of patients and families. According to Syd Johnson (Upstate Medical University), one of the issues to be discussed is denying health insurance coverage for brain-dead patients, which is arbitrary and potentially coercive. At this event Johnson will present a paper arguing that there is no ethical justification for denying coverage to a living patient on life support, even at “the extreme end of the spectrum of neurological injury” when other neurologically injured persons are covered. The working group will also discuss the instrumentalization of brain-dead patients when they are organ donors and the perception of discrimination that results. The discussion will be guided by considering the ethical implications of brain death and the need for greater consistency and justice in its legal and social treatment.

This working group was organized as part of the Death: From Philosophy to Medical Practice and the Law project at the Neubauer Collegium. This event is for invited participants only and is not open to the public.