Determination of death; The removal of organs from pediatric patients

Determination of death
"115. The removal of vital organs from a cadaver poses the problem of diagnosing death with certainty in a new way....It is properly up to medicine to determine as precisely as possible the clinical signs of death...."

"116. If the scientific data do offer grounds for stating that the criterion of whole-brain death and the related signs indicate with surety that the unity of the organsim has been lost irreversibly, the it can be declared that the neurological criterion, 'if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of a sound anthropology. Therefore a health-worker professionally responsible for ascertaining death can use these criteria in each individual case as the basis for arriving at that degree of assurance in ethical judgement which moral teaching describes as "moral certainty." This moral certainty is considered the necessary and sufficient basis for an ethically correct course of action.  Only where such certainty exists, and where informed consent has already been given by the donor or the donor's legitimate representatives, is it morally right to initiate the technical procedures required for the removal of organs for transplant.'236

[Dr. Peter Colosi (2012) has pointed out that "Some medical doctors and theologians doubt that brain-dead donors are actually dead. This would mean that the removal of the vital organ is the act by which the donor dies, but the Catechism (No. 2296) states, '[I]t is not morally admissible directly to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons'.... Eminent Catholic critics of brain death are Dr. Paul Byrne of St. Charles Mercy Hospital in Oregon, Ohio, and Josef Seifert of the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein and Granada, Spain.  The medical studies of Dr. Alan Shewmon of UCLA Medical School are quite convincing indications that brain dead people are not dead, or at the very least that we do not have moral certainty that they are....The view that brain-dead people (whole brain death) are dead is held by eminent Catholic theologians, such as John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. The seriousness of this question is: If the pope ever declared that brain dead people are not dead, then all Catholic hospitals would have to stop performing heart transplant operations and all Catholics would have to stop seeking to receive hearts from donors....Some hold that the Church has already pronounced in favor of brain death, and they cite this passage from Pope John Paul II’s Aug. 29, 2000, speech to the International Transplantation Society....I always notice that little word 'seem' in the first sentence. If further knowledge reveals that brain death does seem to conflict with a sound anthropology, this would remove the moral certainty referred to later in the quotation, and it would follow that vital organ donations should not be done."

If you click here and move to 22:35, you will hear a radio 1/8/2014 "debate" between Dr. Paul Byrne and Dr. John Haas (NOT a physician).  In that debate, Haas appears to incorrectly speak as though Pope John Paul II (2000) unequivocally endorsed so-called brain death criteria.

'In an area such as this, in fact, there cannot be the slightest suspicion of arbitration and where certainty has not been attained the principle of precaution must prevail. This is why it is useful to promote research and interdisciplinary reflection to place public opinion before the most transparent truth on the anthropological, social, ethical and juridical implications of the practice of transplantation.'237"

As per Pope Benedict XVI (2008), "individual vital organs cannot be extracted except ex cadavere....In these years science has accomplished further progress in certifying the death of the patient. It is good, therefore, that the results attained receive the consent of the entire scientific community in order to further research for solutions that give certainty to all. In an area such as this, in fact, there cannot be the slightest suspicion of arbitration and where certainty has not been attained the principle of precaution must prevail....the principal criteria of respect for the life of the donator must always prevail so that the extraction of organs be performed only in the case of his/her true death (cf. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 476)"]

The removal of organs from pediatric patients
"117. Particular care must be used in the procurement of organs from pediatric donors...."