Science Pub Series # 2 - With D. Alan Shewmon, M.D.
Current controversies surrounding the diagnosis of death and the ethics of organ transplantation
Sunday, February 23rd @ 3:00-5:00 PM
Location: Trattoria Neapolis, 336 S. Lake Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101
The “dead donor rule” has long been considered the firm ethical and legal basis for transplantation of vital organs. People who declare themselves potential organ donors assume they will be dead when organs are removed, but few think about what that precondition really means or how it will be clinically determined. In the transplantation context, death is declared by either a neurological criterion (“brain-dead,” “heart-beating” donors) or a circulatory-respiratory criterion (“non-heart-beating” donors). Over the past two decades scholarly critiques of both types of criteria have been gaining ground, and controversies over the definition and criteria of death now rage more intensely than ever. In this lecture, pediatric neurologist Dr. D. Alan Shewmon, one of the most influential critics of “brain death,” will provide an overview of the debate and propose a resolution in the form of a conceptual and terminological paradigm shift.
D. Alan Shewmon, MD received his BA from Harvard in 1971 as a music major. (Originally in the class of 1970, he took a year off to study piano intensively in Europe.) Shifting direction, he went on to medical school at NYU, pediatric residency at Children's Hospital, San Francisco, and neurology residency at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. After a fellowship at UCLA in 1980, he has remained on the UCLA Medical School faculty ever since, with joint appointments in the departments of Pediatrics and Neurology. From 1983 to 1999 Dr. Shewmon was director of UCLA’s Pediatric Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory and played a key role in the emergence of UCLA as one of the preeminent centers in the world for pediatric epilepsy surgery. In 2000 he moved to Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, a university-affiliated county hospital, as director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory and head of Pediatric Neurology. In 2003 he became Chief of the Neurology Department there and Vice Chair of Neurology at UCLA. In 2011 he became Clinical Professor Emeritus at UCLA while continuing as Chief of Neurology at Olive View.
Seating is limited. Tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.
Cost: $25 per person, includes Chef Wigger's gourmet pizzas, house wine and/or non-alcoholic beverages (free parking)
Contact: Ethel Seminario Laczko, etheledu@gmail.com
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