Should the Newly Dead be Used to Help the Living? An Issue in Our Time

I am grateful to the Theological Commission of the Washington State Catholic Conference for suggestions made during the development of this article.

Gaylin Willard “Harvesting the Dead”, Harpers, Vol. 249, n. 1492, September, 1974, p. 23.

Shane Harold B. , and Daly Walter J. “How the Dead Can Help the Living,” The Futurist, Vol. XX, n. 1, January-February, 1986, p. 24.

The financial and technical issues are beyond the scope of this paper.

Gaylin op. cit., p. 28.

Cook Robin Coma, 1977. This science-fiction novel describes the mechanization of a process of system maintenance of the brain-dead which enabled machines to do the caring activities.

Pope Piux XII in 1956 stated, “A person may will to dispose of his body and to destine it to ends that are useful, morally irreproachable and even noble, among them the desire to aid the sick and the suffering.” Allocution to a Group of Eye Specialists, May 14, 1956, reprinted in Ashley , and O'Rourke Health Care Ethics, 2nd ed., 1982, p. 308.

Lamb David Death, Brain Death and Ethics, p. 52.

There is extensive literature on the moral issue of withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration. The issue has a bearing on the question of neomorts but will not be considered here.

Cox Julia “Organ donation: The challenge for emergency nursing,” Journal of Emergency Nursing, Vol. 12, n. 4, July-August, p. 200.

Kruse R.N. , Sandi M.N. , Coordinator of Heart Transplant Program, University of Washington Hospital, Nov. 24, 1987 (discussion).

Feinberg Joel “The Mistreatment of Dead Bodies,” The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 15, n. 1, February, 1985, p. 31.

Feinberg Joel “The Mistreatment of Dead Bodies,” The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 15, n. 1, February, 1985, p. 31.

The Hastings Center Report, October/November, 1987, Vol. 17, n. 5, p. 47.

Veatch Robert M. Death, Dying, and the Biological Revolution, p. 252.

Gaylin op. cit., p. 26.

Lamb op. cit., p. 14.

Lamb op. cit., p. 3.

Lamb op. cit., p. 71.

Lamb op. cit., p. 5.

President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Defining Death, Chapter 3.

President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Defining Death, p. 160. The State of Washington used this dual criteria. Case of William Matthew Bowman, #46582, Oct. 2, 1980.

Defining Death, pp. 5–6.

Lamb op. cit., p. 29.

Defining Death, p. 17 n5.

Veatch Robert M. “The Whole-Brain-Oriented Concept of Death: An Outmoded Philosophical Formulation,” in Beauchamp and Walters, Contemporary Biomedical Ethics, 1982, pp. 267–275.

Defining Death, p. 40.

Lamb op. cit., p. 7; Norman Frost, “Research on the brain dead,” The Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 96, n. 1, 1980, pp. 55.

Defining Death, p. 22.

Schwartz “Bioethical and Legal Considerations in Increasing the Supply of Transplantable Organs: From UAGA to ‘Baby Fae’”, “The Journal of Law and Medicine,” Vol. 10, n. 4, p. 418.

Lamb , op. cit., p. 79.

Lamb , op. cit., p. 60.

Lamb , op. cit.

Discussion, College of Arts and Sciences Symposium, Seattle University, April 13, 1988.

May William E. “Religious Justifications for Donating Body Parts,” The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 15, n. 1, February 1985, p. 39.

Kass Leon R. “Thinking About the Body,” The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 15, n. 1, February, 1985, p. 20.

Feinberg op. cit., pp. 31–37.

Faculty Colloquium.

Mahowald Mary B. , Silver Jerry , and Ratcheson Robert A. “The Ethical Options in Transplanting Fetal Tissue,” The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 17, n. 1, February, 1987, p. 10.

Veatch op. cit., p. 252.

Frost op. cit., p. 55.

May op. cit., pp. 38–42.

Pius XII, Pope, Allocution to a Group of Eye Specialists, Quoted in Ashley , and O'Rourke Health Care Ethics, p. 308.

Murray Thomas H. “Gifts of the Body and the Needs of Strangers,” The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 17, n. 1, April, 1987, p. 35.

Murray Thomas H. “Gifts of the Body and the Needs of Strangers,” The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 17, n. 1, April, 1987, p. 35.

Kelly David F. “Religious Symbolism of Organ Transplants, “Health Progress,” November, 1987, p. 52.

DePender, Dr. William, M.D. (conversation), March 15, 1988.

DePender, Dr. William, M.D. (conversation), March 15, 1988.

Kelly op. cit., p. 52.

William DePender Dr. , M.D. (conversation), March 15, 1988.