Midday on Ethics with Dr. Jeffrey Kahn: What Is Death?

It’s another edition of Midday on Ethics. Today we explore some ethical questions pulled straight from the headlines. We’ll begin with the story of Jahi McMath, a 13-year -old girl in California who was declared dead in late 2013, after a routine surgery went wrong. Then, last month, 4\u189\u years later, she was declared dead, again, in New Jersey. It’s a tragic story that raises issues about end of life that has pitted the medical profession against people with deeply held religious beliefs. Just like there is no consensus on when life begins; there is also a lack of agreement about when life ends. How do we define death? And who gets to define it?Another story caught our eye as well. Infertile couples who undergo IVF treatment often have leftover embryos, which are saved for possible future use in hopes of achieving pregnancy. If those couples split up, the legal consensus has been that the embryos cannot be used unless both people agree, on the theory that nobody can be forced to be a parent. A new law in Arizona turns that consensus on its head.Dr. Jeffrey Kahn joins Tom in Studio A. He’s the Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. He stops by from time to time to help us explore how ethicists frame these very complex questions.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.