Consent Not Needed for Brain Death Testing

I'm pleased to see Art Caplan, in his latest Medscape Ethics video, agree with me that consent is not needed for brain death testing. The issue continues to be contested. But the weight of ethical, professional, and legal authority is that consent is not required. 

I have made this argument multiple times: 

• Is Consent Required for Clinicians to Make a Determination of Death by Neurologic Criteria? in DEATH DETERMINATION BY NEUOLOGICAL CRITERIA: AREAS OF CONTROVERSY AND CONSENSUS 287-304 (Ariane Lewis and James L. Bernat eds., Springer 2022).
• Consent for Death Determination Testing - Recommendations of the Definition and Determination of Death Project, 70(4) CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ANESTHESIA 570-584 (April 2023) (with others).
• No Consent for Brain Death Testing, 50 JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS (2024) (with Alex Ruck Keene and Jennifer Chandler).
• Counterpoint: Whether Informed Consent Should Be Obtained for Apnea Testing in the Determination of Death by Neurological Criteria: No, 161(5) CHEST 1145-1147 (2022).
• Rebuttal from Dr. Pope: Whether Informed Consent Should Be Obtained for Apnea Testing in the Determination of Death by Neurological Criteria, 161(5) CHEST 1148-1149 (2022).
• Brain Death Forsaken: Growing Conflict and New Legal Challenges, 37(3-4) JOURNAL OF LEGAL MEDICINE 265-324 (2017).