Brain Death and Organ Donation: A Crisis of Public Trust

This article considers Ramsey's principle of fidelity to covenant as applied to the controversy regarding the determination of death on neurological grounds. After (1) explaining Ramsey's ethical concern that framing the brain death debate with reference to the need for transplantable organs would undermine public trust, I then (2) go on to show that his concern was well-founded and continues to be applicable today, (3) consider some of the underlying reasons for the current crisis of public trust, and (4) evaluate one controversial solution to this problem that has been proposed by several prominent bioethicists.