Edited by Dr David Crippen
This series of articles in Critical Care has not been sponsored. All articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer review process overseen by the Series Editor, with final decisions made by the Editor in Chief. The Series Editor and Editor in Chief declare no competing interests.
This review explores the legitimacy of the whole brain death (WBD) criterion. I argue that it does not fulfill the traditional biologic definition of death and is, therefore, an unsound clinical and philosophi...
Do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders are commonly implemented in the critical care setting as a prelude to end-of-life care. This is often based on presumed prognosis for favorable outcome and interpretation of pat...
Critical care medicine has expanded the envelope of debilitating disease through the application of an aggressive and invasive care plan, part of which is designed to identify and reverse organ dysfunction bef...
When patients or their families rarely request inappropriate end of life care in the ICU for capricious reasons. End of life treatment decisions that only prolong discomfort and death are usually emotional and...