Beyond Brain Death offers a provocative challenge to one of the most widely accepted conclusions of contemporary bioethics: the position that brain death marks the death of the human person. Eleven chapters by physicians, philosophers, and theologians present the case against brain-based criteria for human death. Each author believes that this position calls into question the moral acceptability of the transplantation of unpaired vital organs from brain-dead patients who have continuing function of the circulatory system. One strength of the book is its international approach to the question: contributors are from the United States, the United Kingdom, Liechtenstein, and Japan. This book will appeal to a wide audience, including physicians and other health care professionals, philosophers, theologians, medical sociologists, and social workers.

"Riveting plot, terrifying premise..." ~Tami Hoag, NYT Bestselling Author of Down The Darkest Road When forensic nurse Timmie Leary-Parker moves from LA to Puckett, Missouri to care for her ailing father, she's prepared for the slow pace, the small-town politics and the feeling that everyone knows her business. Then, patients in the hospital's Alzheimer's Unit start dying in unprecedented numbers. Everyone refuses to investigate the town's most lucrative business, and no one will challenge the hospital's Golden Boy director. No one, except Timmie. Convinced a serial killer walks the Alzheimer's Unit where her father lies ill, Timmie digs up a burned-out Pulitzer-winning reporter and dives into a quagmire of corruption and greed. "Dreyer writes with great wit and sensitivity, especially about the problems of loving and coping with older relatives." ~The Times-Picayune Eileen Dreyer knocks readers off their feet. You won't forget the power, pain and moral ambiguity of this incredible novel." ~Romantic Times Publisher's Note: As a former trauma nurse, Eileen Dreyer combines her real-world medical knowledge and superb story-telling to bring readers a series of uniquely plotted, spine-tingling, medical mysteries. Fans of Tami Hoag, Elizabeth George, Nora Roberts as well as John Lutz, Michael Crichton and Patricia Cornwell will enjoy these well-crafted medical thrillers.

"Panicking never helps." Tuesday's breakfast was interrupted by a stroke, and the only available help is the author's second grader. Launched into a medical crisis, Kimberly Davis Basso (and her brain) respond with wit, wisdom, and wishful thinking. From surviving a stroke to surviving a zombie apocalypse, "I'm a Little Brain Dead" is alarmingly irreverent. No matter how critical or ridiculous the situation, Kimberly abides by their family rule "Panicking never helps." You'll get an inside look at being a middle aged stroke patient as she hosts a neurological event, juggles doctors, undergoes a heart procedure and asks the really big question - how tiny is tiny when it refers to dead tissue? What would you do? Are you prepared to have a medical crisis, unable to speak or walk? Would your kids know what to do? It's time to make an escape plan. Kimberly will walk (or rather shuffle) readers through her experience in an honest, hilarious look at the site of the world's smallest zombie apocalypse - her brain.

In this, his first collection of essays, Saunders trains his eye on the real world rather than the fictional and reveals it to be brimming with wonderful, marvellous strangeness. As he faces a political and cultural reality saturated with lazy media, false promises and political doublespeak, Saunders invokes the wisdom of American literary heroes Twain, Vonnegut and Barthelme and inspires us to re-examine our assumptions about the world we live in, as we struggle to discover what is really there.

Originally published in 1985, this book examines the concept of death against the background of dramatic changes in medical technology. The book argues that ‘brain death’ can be precisely defined and that a biological concept of death such as ‘brain death’ can be philosophically well-grounded. It examines traditional criteria for death and various formulations of the concept of death in both medical literature and philosophical texts. Definitions of ‘brain death’ – some of which have become statute law – are critically examined. The author also examines ethical and social policy questions which arise out of attempts to redefine the boundaries of life.

This text provides an overview of the processes of brain death, exploring the concepts and historical approach of human death, clinical examinations of brain-dead patients, ancillary tests in coma and brain death, bioethical discussions of brain death and its relationship with some consciousness disturbances, and the legal considerations of human death. Unlike other, narrow-focus reference this book encompasses a wide spectrum of issues including medical, legal, bioethical and historical aspects.

New technologies and medical treatments have complicated questions such as how to determine the moment when someone has died. The result is a failure to establish consensus on the definition of death and the criteria by which the moment of death is determined. This creates confusion and disagreement not only among medical, legal, and insurance professionals but also within families faced with difficult decisions concerning their loved ones. Distinguished bioethicists Robert M. Veatch and Lainie F. Ross argue that the definition of death is not a scientific question but a social one rooted in religious, philosophical, and social beliefs. Drawing on history and recent court cases, the authors detail three potential definitions of death -- the whole-brain concept; the circulatory, or somatic, concept; and the higher-brain concept. Because no one definition of death commands majority support, it creates a major public policy problem. The authors cede that society needs a default definition to proceed in certain cases, like those involving organ transplantation. But they also argue the decision-making process must give individuals the space to choose among plausible definitions of death according to personal beliefs. Taken in part from the authors' latest edition of their groundbreaking work on transplantation ethics, Defining Death is an indispensable guide for professionals in medicine, law, insurance, public policy, theology, and philosophy as well as lay people trying to decide when they want to be treated as dead.