ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors explore the issues at play when deciding to provide or withdraw mechanical ventilation, high-powered medications, artificial hydration, and nutrition. They address questions like "When does an individual stop being a living person? When is it appropriate to withdraw life supports? When should the authors, or shouldn't their, 'harvest' healthy organs from such individuals and transplant them in others who need them?". The authors discuss that there are several key principles that come into play when discussing ethical decision-making. The Harvard Committee established four criteria, now called the Harvard criteria, for determining when someone was brain dead. The first three of the Harvard criteria are similar to the traditional indicators for clinical death: unreceptiveness and unresponsiveness; lack of spontaneous respiration and muscle movement; and absence of reflexes. Neocortical death can occur in an otherwise healthy person when there is a lack of blood supply and oxygen to brain.
