Alive inside

Authors

Andrew Peterson, George Mason University, Fairfax CampusFollow
Adrian M. Owen, The University of Western OntarioFollow
Jason Karlawish, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2019

Journal

Bioethics

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1111/bioe.12678

Abstract

This article provides an ethical analysis of the U.S. practice guideline update on disorders of consciousness. Our analysis focuses on the guideline’s recommendations regarding the use of investigational neuroimaging methods to assess brain-injured patients. Complex and multifaceted ethical issues have emerged because these methods alter the clinical understanding of consciousness. We address issues of false hope, patient suffering, and cost. We argue that, in spite of these concerns, there is significant benefit to using neuroimaging to assess brain-injured patients in most cases.

Notes

© 2019 The Authors. Bioethics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

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Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License