If You're Brain Dead R U Dead or Only Just Dead Enough?

Rome is hosting a conference on "brain death". The conference seeks to clarify the position of the Catholic Church on the removal of vital organs from patients. In Novembers of 2008, the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life caused a volcanic eruption, when it declined to address the ethical problems of "brain death criteria". Letters and emails went unanswered and the conference went ahead, with no mention of the controversy surrounding organ donation. 

Pope Benedict XVI, in his address to the conference warned, organ transplantation can be a source of abuses of human dignity. "The main criteria must be respect for the life of the donor, so that the removal of organs is allowed only in the presence of his actual death." 

As usual, immediately following the publication of the Pope's address, the Vatican responded by posting articles defending the use of "brain death criteria" for organ transplantation. L' Osservatore Romano published an article by Lucetta Scaraffia, a professor of contemporary history at the Rome University La Sapienza, outlining the dangers of "brain death criteria".  

This sets the stage for this week's conference. What do you suspect will happen?

---

Looking for work? Get job alerts, employment information, career advice and job-seeking tools at AOL Find a Job.