Prolonging Life:
Legal, Ethical, and Social Dilemmas
Moderated by Steve Paulson
Executive Producer, To the Best of Our Knowledge
Featuring:
Christopher Comfort, MD
Medical Director, Calvary Hospital
Barbara Coombs Lee, PA, FNP, JD
President, Compassion & Choices
Sam Shemie, MD
Professor of Pediatrics, McGill University
Director, Extracorporeal Life Support Program, Montreal Children's Hospital
Bertram Loeb Chair, Organ and Tissue Donation, University of Ottawa
Mildred Z. Solomon, EdD
President and CEO, The Hastings Center
Clinical Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School
The ability of modern medicine to prolong life has raised a variety of difficult legal, ethical, and social issues on which reasonable minds can differ. Among these is the morality of euthanasia in cases of deep coma or irreversible injury, as well as the dead donor rule with respect to organ harvesting and transplants. As science continues to refine and develop lifesaving technologies, questions remain as to how much medical effort and financial resources should be expended to prolong the lives of patients suspended between life and death. At what point should death be considered irreversible?
What criteria should be used to determine when to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging treatments in cases of severe brain damage and terminal illness? In exploring these complex dilemmas, medical director Christopher Comfort, organ transplant specialist Sam Shemie, ethicist Mildred Solomon, and attorney Barbara Coombs Lee will examine the underlying assumptions and considerations that ultimately shape individual and societal decisions surrounding these issues.
Reception to Follow
7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, 40th Floor