Politics
Friday February 11, 2005
Catholic medical authority raps 'brain death' criteria
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
ROME, February 7, 2005 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - At a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the discussion of organ transplants, a former president of the Catholic Medical Association has demanded a more accurate definition of when death occurs.
Current criteria used by doctors to determine "brain death"-- the point at which vital organs may be removed from a donor-- are not adequate, argued Dr. Paul Byrne. He pointed out that at the time the organs are removed, the donor's heart is beating, his body is warm, and other vital organs are still functioning, even if there is medical assistance.
"Brain death is not death," Dr. Byrne said.
In an article published in Catholic World Report in October 2001-- with Bishops Fabian Bruskewitz and Robert Vasa among several co-authors-- Byrne argued that it is the removal of the vital organs that causes the death of the donor. Therefore, the article concluded, the donation of vital organs is never morally licit.
Although he has given his support in principle to organ donation, Pope John Paul II (bio - news) has urged doctors to define clear criteria for the death of an organ donor. Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, said that last week's meeting in Rome had been devoted to that purpose.
See previous LifeSiteNews.com Stories on this issue
Denver Coroner Rules "Homicide" in Organ-Donor Case
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/oct/04101208.html
Russian Surgeons Removing Organs Saying Patients Almost Dead Anyway
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/sep/03090906.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Obama Administration Calls for Universal Access to Abortion at UN Meeting
- Commentary: How the WHO Skewed Maternal Mortality Data to Advance Abortion Agenda
- Abortion Facility Director Pleads for Late-Term Abortion in Canada
- Abortion Has Greater Impact on Parenting than Other Forms of Pregnancy Loss, New Review Finds
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.