Brain Death…Medical, Moral and Philosophical Issues

I’m so excited to be attending this conference on Saturday. It is being held in Livonia, Mi about an hour from my home.

Dr. Hargroder completed his General Surgery and Transplant Surgery training at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, LA in 1993. Since leaving the field of Transplant Surgery in 1996 due to concerns with brain death criteria, Dr. Hargroder has focused his practice on General, Trauma, and Bariatric surgery. He currently serves as chairman of the Division of General Surgery for Mercy Medical Center in Joplin, MO.

Dr. Hargroder will be speaking on  Brain Death from the Perspective of a Former Transplant Surgeon

Fr. Joseph Howard’s research focuses on the metaphysics of the human being as related to the dignity of the human person regarding the beginning of life and end of life in clinical issues. He has served as the Principal Investigator for over ten years in research involving brain death, organ procurement, and death of the human person with colleagues in nuclear radiology, medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, bioethics, philosophy, and theology. Fr. Howard’s doctoral studies in moral theology and bioethics were done at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Fr Joseph Howard will be speaking on Total Brain Death, Spontaneous Metaphysical Operations of the Human Rational Soul and Death of the Person.

The Determination of Death and the Catholic Magisterium 

This will be taught by  Dr. Robert Fastiggi (A.B., Dartmouth; M.A., Ph.D., Fordham) is a Catholic theologian and the current President of the Mariological Society of America (2014–2016).

Objectives

Understand the philosophical, anthropological, and moral issues implicit in the declaration of brain death.

• Explore the meaning of person in this context.

• Examine the writings of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI pertinent to this discussion and distinguish the respective limits of medical science and theology.

• Understand the real world practice of organ transplant and brain death criteria.

I am so excited they are having this conference near me, I am sure as much as I have researched the last three years, I will be learning a lot.

There will be questions and answers after each speaker and I hope to be able to ask Dr. Hargroder ( if he doesn’t cover it) what it is like to have a so-called dead person twitching and jerking on the operating table during the harvest.

I am so thankful we did NOT donate Jamie’s organs. I am sure I could not have endured knowing what I know now.