The idea of vaccine passports, or digital health passports, as they have been called, have been increasingly talked about as we consider what post-pandemic life looks like. But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to make it clear that there is absolutely no way such a passport would get any backing in the sunshine state.
“The vaccine passport is a terrible idea,” he said. “We are definitely not going to require anything from the state’s perspective. That is totally off the table. If I have businesses that want to do that in Florida, I think that that’s more than just a private decision.”
He continued: “Look, if you want to go to a movie theater or concert, all this stuff, go. If you don’t, don’t. But to require somebody to show some type of proof vaccination, I think, is completely unacceptable, and it’s not something that we’re going to support here in any way in Florida.”
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March 19, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Stunning revelations about Hunter Biden and his family’s notorious business dealings came to light in this week’s episode of the John-Henry Westen Show during an interview with Jack Maxey, former co-host of Steve Bannon’s War Room and one of the first people to go through the contents of Biden’s alleged laptop last October.https://www.youtube.com/embed/9OvSx6_Q5NY
Maxey revealed that Hunter Biden may have had business ties to China’s Xi Jinping, based on emails from the laptop. Correspondence also links the Bidens to possible Chinese espionage and illegal Beijing-backed business arrangements. As the Biden family’s China dealings went south, Hunter may have gone so far as to try to purposefully incriminate his own his father, now the President of the United States, Maxey said.
Maxey reiterated that the Hunter Biden laptop data is indeed “100 percent real.” “Well, for example, I had several retired CIA agents look at it, a former contractor from the NSA, cybersecurity experts. Everybody who has looked at this confirms that it is 100 percent real,” he said.
“As one person said to me, if we devoted all the resources of (the CIA) for a decade, we couldn’t recreate this because there’s so much metadata connecting everything together,” Maxey added. SUBSCRIBEto LifeSite’s daily headlinesSUBSCRIBEU.S. Canada World Catholic
Meetings with Xi Jinping
“It seems almost as if every time I chase down a rabbit hole, I find something more horrible each and every time,” Maxey said about the laptop files.
He mentioned Bohai Harvest RST Partners (BHR), an equity firm that Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, a convicted criminal and family friend of Secretary of State John Kerry, founded with top Chinese investment companies in 2014. Biden had had little previous success in the financial industry before launching BHR with backing from the Bank of China.
“Now, these guys knew nothing about private equity,” Maxey said. “(I)nstitutions like Goldman Sachs were not able to ever cut deals like that, and so you have to begin to question, was it for access?”
“I believe it was,” he said. Maxey revealed that Biden and Archer’s work with BHR reached the highest levels of Chinese government. According to an email provided by Maxey, BHR consulted with Biden and Archer to arrange a meeting between Chairman Xi Jinping and potential business partners during Xi’s state visit to America in 2015.
“Further to your conversation with Jonathan regarding a possible arrangement for President Xi to visit LeTV’s facilities in Los Angeles during his upcoming trip to the U.S. in September/October 2015, Jonathan and I had an interesting meeting with LeTV’s founders,” the email sent to Biden and Archer in July 2015, purportedly from a BHR associate, reads.
The message appears to be copied to Jonathan Li, an BHR executive who had met with Joe Biden during the then-vice president’s official trip to China two years prior. That meeting was set up by Hunter Biden, who accompanied his father on the trip, the New Yorker reported.
Again during his vice presidency, Biden later wrote a letter of recommendation for Li’s son, according to Hunter Biden laptop emails.
“President Xi will be making a stop in L.A. during his visit where LeTV has recently acquired a R&D center committing to invest between US$3-5 billlion towards the research and design of electrical cars and intelligent vehicles,” the 2015 email to Biden and Archer says.
“LeTV has enlisted our help to arrange for President Xi to visit their facilities, or, if that cannot be arranged, for (LeTV founder) Mr. Jia Yueting to speak at any of the meet-and-greet functions to be attended by President Xi,” it adds.
The email also notes a “one-time advisory fee payable to BHR” and an “opportunity to co-invest with LeTV and Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC)” in exchange for orchestrating the “meet-and-greet.” “More importantly, this would mark the beginning of a long-term and comprehensive cooperation with LeTV and an opportunity to participate in all of its future activities.”
It is unclear whether the events with either Xi or Jia ever happened. Xi’s U.S. visit in the fall of 2015 did not include an official stop in California.
“But when you have the son of the Vice President and his crooked partner essentially defining the schedule for the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party on a trip to the United States, with the purpose of using his influence to get to American companies to sell to the Chinese, that is a (Foreign Agents Registration Act) violation like one can’t believe,” Maxey said.
National security implications
Other compromising connections that Maxey detailed include the Bidens’ links to Chinese spy activity. While BHR’s plans with LeTV may never have panned out, the Beijing-backed investment firm nevertheless managed to buy up sensitive American national security assets with a firm linked to espionage attacks against the United States.
In September 2014, BHR bought Michigan-based Henniges Automotive, a leader in antivibration technology. “Now, this company makes dampening systems for automobiles, jet engines, tanks, you name it – has a very clear national security component to it,” Maxey said.
BHR closed the acquisition in partnership with Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), a state-owned entity that produces stealth fighter jets for China’s air force. AVIC recently had been involved in a successful espionage scheme to steal American military technology.
The BHR-AVIC deal, which gave AVIC a controlling stake in Henniges, needed approval from the Council on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a committee made up of representatives of Cabinet-level agencies, including the Departments of State and Defense. The Obama administration ultimately authorized the transaction, leading to a Senate probe that turned up evidence of possible financial crimes by Hunter Biden and his uncle, Joe Biden’s brother, James.
“(W)hat’s really quite disturbing is, for example, the CFIUS review for that purchase of the auto company in Detroit, from the emails, it’s apparent that the Chinese knew that they were going to pass the CFIUS review even before Hunter and Devin and their third partner, Jimmy Bulger,” Maxey said.
“Now, one other thing that we found very difficult when we were looking at this was, how was Hunter communicating with his handlers in Beijing? How was he making that connection?” Maxey continued.
As LifeSite previously reported, an email published by Maxey shows Hunter Biden proposing that a Chinese BHR employee should “be housed here in Washington D.C.,” in the offices of a firm founded by him and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of Secretary Kerry.
“I think we all feel it is critical to have someone at this level engaged on a full time basis to assist in coordinating the U.S. Teams input and communications to and from Beijing,” the email reads. “This would include monitoring all deals and advising where the U.S. Team could add value, and keeping the Beijing Team informed as to our fund raising and other efforts.”
The employee would have access to Hunter Biden and his partners’ expense reports, the email adds. “We would like to have this individual hired and in office beginning March 1st. Once they are acclimated here (10 days or so) he or she will travel to China to spend 30 days or so with the Beijing BHR team,” it continues.
“They immediately send her to Beijing for a several week course in communications. Why do you have to do that? To learn how to use Zoom and email? You have to do that to learn how to do it in a crafty, hidden fashion,” Jack Maxey said.
“Well, as time goes on, this woman becomes quite a conduit for information flowing into Hunter’s office. For example, she sends an email with all the cell phone numbers of the leadership of the United States in the Senate, the House,” as well as those of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2015, Maxey said.
“And from a espionage point of view, to have those cell phone numbers of all those people is a tremendous coup,” he continued. Retired General Mike Flynn made a similar assessment of the Kathy Chung email, calling the contents “a ‘treasure trove’ of intelligence.” Chung remains with the Biden team and has taken a new role in the White House, according to POLITICO.
The thing to take them all down
Joe Biden’s cell phone also may have been compromised, implicating highly sensitive conservations with his profligate son found on the laptop.
Among the younger Biden’s text messages, “there’s a text conversation with his father, who’s ‘Junior’ in the text messages. And over a period of about six months, a lot of it is the father just having worry for a son who’s clearly a drug-addled person,” Maxey said.
“But several times during that six- or eight-month period, I believe three different times, they discussed the allegations against Hunter as someone who potentially has abused one of the family’s children or maybe more than one. And at one point, his father says, ‘Hey, Hunter, my people tell me that my cell phone may be compromised, might be a good idea if you stop putting all of this in writing.’”
“She is gone if and when you want to talk about this call me,” the undated text, allegedly from Joe Biden, reads. “Be careful what you text Likely (sic) I’m being hacked,” it adds. Numerous other texts reviewed by LifeSiteNews describe Hunter Biden’s allegedly sexually abusive behavior with or around minors.
“Now, that lends credence to my belief that Hunter was trying to set up the other people around him,” Maxey said, “because if my dad told me, ‘Hey, you’re putting this stuff in writing, I don’t want it on my phone,’ I would erase the conversation. I certainly wouldn’t save it. And he does this over and over again.”
“It seems to me that there was a concerted effort on his part to make it clear that if he was going down, that laptop would take everybody else down with him. I think he was probably afraid. His partners from China were disappearing,” Maxey added.
By 2018, Hunter Biden’s top business contacts at a state-backed Chinese company called CEFC China Energy were swept up a massive African bribery scandal. Patrick Ho, a CEFC executive whom Hunter Biden described as the “spy chief of China” in leaked audio, was arrested in late 2017 and later served time in a New York prison. CEFC chairman Ye Jianming “vanished” not long after Ho’s arrest.
Hunter Biden had worked closely with both Ho and Ye, and at one point agreed to represent Ho as his personal attorney for a $1 million contract.
Other members of the Biden family were involved with CEFC, according to emails and the testimony of Bobulinski, the former Hunter Biden business partner. A bombshell email from 2017 substantiated by Bobulinksi depicts a proposed structure for a CEFC-linked venture featuring a 10 percent cut for “the big guy;” a monicker that Bobulinksi confirmed referred to Joe Biden.
Correspondence from earlier in 2017 notes another deal pursued by CEFC, this time in Oman, with the support of “The B family.
“As I said, the Chinese were very concerned about Hunter,” Maxey said. “I think even at the highest levels, even in Chairman’s circle, they thought that Hunter Biden was going to be the thing that took them all down because he was just so irrational and so depraved.”
Rigged election
“I think that one of the things that your viewers should really understand, though, is that the FBI got this laptop on December 9th of 2019,” Maxey told the Westen Show. “And so they’ve known everything that’s in this for now, almost a year and a half, and had the American people been aware in this, there is no possible way in my mind that Joe Biden could have even entered the Democratic primaries,” he continued.
“And we have to ask ourselves why? Why would they not reveal this to the American people? Why would they run a protection racket for Joe Biden? I think that’s a question that needs to be answered,” Maxey said.
He pointed to a letter signed by 50 former U.S. intelligence officials, including Obama era CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta, claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop likely was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. “Now, we know that today that that is a complete lie,” Maxey said, calling the letter “election interference.”
“One hundred percent, I don’t think, in a face-to-face challenge, no matter whether we had perfect elections or not, (Biden) could possibly be elected by the American people if they knew what I know, and what the FBI has known since December 9th of 2019,” Maxey said.
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Today’s Top Stories From the Breitbart News DeskThe Biden administration faced its first China test this week and flunked it. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began the meeting by lecturing China that its action in Xinjiang and Hong Kong were “threatening the rules-based order that maintains global stability.” China responded by immediately breaking the rules of the very meeting—in which opening remarks were supposed to be limited to two minutes—to launch into a lengthy harangue about America’s “human rights violations” and racism. Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi engaged in an 18-minute tirade against the U.S. moral standing in the world.”China has made steady progress in human rights, and the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself as well,” Yang said.All this would be humiliating enough, but team Biden made it even worse by not standing up for the United States against China’s outrageous accusations. In fact, Blinken’s people agreed to the premise that America is a deeply flawed country that needs to be made “more perfect” through progressive policy. As it turns out, when your administration preaches critical race theory and spends its energy deploring white privilege, it’s hard to turn around and defend yourself against foreign tyrants who accuse your country of being racist.It was always going to be a struggle to build the multilateral coalition to put pressure on China that Biden promised on the campaign trail. But what happened in Alaska has probably assured that the plan will fail. Who is going to look to U.S. leadership after watching our diplomats get bullied by China on our home turf?Nike quarterly sales missed estimates, with the company blaming shipping issues and pandemic-related slumping sales at brick-and-mortar stores. The company also disappointed investors with its full-year revenue forecast. This shouldn’t have been too surprising. With many schools still shuttered, school sport-related purchases have fallen off steeply. Gyms have been closed in much of the country. Things like pick-up basketball games have been declared off-limits in cities. And with people staying home more, there is just less demand for shoes in general. Few of us have worn out the treads on the sneakers we bought prepandemic.The good news is that Americans are starting to travel again, even though the Centers for Disease Control still say we should avoid doing so. Data from the TSA indicates that airline travel hit the highest level in over a year, although still well below prepandemic levels. Hotel occupancy hit its best level since the pandemic in March as well.– Alex Marlow & John Carney Breitbart News Network
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– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:
“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.” (The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)
– LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:
The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”
– On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:
“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”
– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:
“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.
From the Grapevine & Worth a Look 25Inboxtonym7412:17 AM (10 hours ago)to tonym74@protonmail.comHoping your weekend is going well. God bless, Tony The Church
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March 20, 2021- Rome: Andrea Cionci of Il Libero published yesterday an astute analysis of what Pope Benedict XVI said publicly in 2016, the stunning conclusion of which is that in his own subtle but precise was, was signaling that Bergoglio was NOT the pope, but only a Cardinal.
Dr. Cionci on his official blog submitted the text of the interview published by the Corriere della Sera on Sept. 7, 2016 to a detailed linguistic analysis, analyzing line by line, on the basis of two critical presuppositions: (1) that the Holy Father was not able to speak freely and needed to send the Catholic World indications which, like in his ambiguous and invalid Declaration of Feb. 11, 2013, can be seen for what they are, once one looks at them attentively, (2) that Pope Benedict XVI wanted to clarify the true meaning of Archbishop Ganswein’s talk at the Gregorian University the previous May, when he shocked the world by saying that Benedict XVI still shared the Petrine munus and ministry!
In the analysis of Dr. Cionci one sees that Pope Benedict XVI never refers to Bergoglio as the Pope, and makes some unusual statements which must be taken as jokes, since the affirmations which follows or precede the citation of facts are in ridiculous proportions. Of course, it is native Italian speakers who can see this most clearly, and it is thus that Dr. Cionci builds his case.
You can read the original in Italian, by clicking the link or image above.
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We’ve already covered a kind of Stockholm Syndrome being brought on by the State here. Now we will look at the Church.
This week, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith(CDF) answered in the negative to the question Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex? This might seem an orthodox response (and it is) but the CDF ironically quoted Amoris Laetitia (the 2016 document allowing divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion without confession or annulment) by then saying, “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”
Most in the LGBT community were disappointed, while others celebrated what they saw as an end to the “cognitive dissonance.” One person commented under Dr. Taylor Marshall’s video, “As a gay atheist, this makes me incredibly happy. People riddled with cognitive dissonance can no longer hide behind the ‘the pope is literally an ally’ claim.”
You might expect me to be happy about the CDF’s statement, but a happiness is neither true nor lasting while there remains published errata concerning the same grave matter. These certain contradictions indeed demand an explanation. To know that we are speaking and thinking with the mind of the Church, we must aim for that same clarity which is the definitive (i.e. identifying) mark of the unchanging, universal Church.
Enormous and preceding issues like Canon 188 aside, let’s consider the following two issues in light of the recent CDF statement:
1. Ed Pentin, Vatican correspondent to the National Catholic Register, tweeted this in August of 2017:
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Biden’s White House Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci just told the World Health Organization: “It will be our policy to support women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in the United States, as well as globally” in a repeal of the Mexico City policy. It is this same Dr. Anthony Fauci who wants us all to take a COVID-19 vaccine developed on unborn babies who “were alive at tissue extraction.”
I suspect (but can not prove as clearly as the hyperlinks in the previous paragraph prove a single pro-death team) that at the General Judgment we all will see that the same group of men who paid for the invention of COVID-19 in a Wuhan lab were also the same people controlling this government-overreach lockdown across the globe.
Abusers, kidnappers and communists all use Stockholm Syndromedefined as “a condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors during captivity. Emotional bonds may be formed between captors and captives, during intimate time together, but these are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims.”
Abusers and kidnappers who employ Stockholm Syndrome frequently oscillate between doling out kindness between waves of abuse, then doling out kindness amidst waves of abuse. This is to give the impression that the abuser is not only in control of the victim receiving justice, but also in control of the victim receiving mercy. Hence, the victim becomes attached to this abuser in this cycle of abuse where the victim believes she is receiving “mercy” when he loosens his grip.
The communists employed this psy-op on their own people in the 20th century, and we are seeing it played out in the COVID-19 lockdown across the globe in the 21st century: What was once “two weeks to flatten the curve” is now an abuse cycle that the globalist totalitarians use against us, replete with rejection medicines that would actually work against COVID (eg hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin) and promises of a better day in the future, hence the featured image at the top, DON’T WORRY, WE’LL HOLD HANDS AGAIN.
That is classic Stockholm Syndrome. The truth is that Fauci and Gates’ big global government has no intention to let you hold hands again. If they release their grip on your social life for a time, it is simply to increase your trust in their “mercy” so that you will trust them when yet another lockdown leads to another aborted-baby-based vaccine in preparation for the next cycle of the “new strain” (already here) to pave the way for yet another vaccine that came from the lines of babies that were alive while they were tortured under lab instruments (see first paragraph.) It will prep us all for more lockdowns causing more suicides (all justified in the name of reducing climate change) while every country hangs on the words of the globalists lying through their teeth as they say: DON’T WORRY, WE’LL HOLD HANDS AGAIN.
Pic I got in downtown Dallas as I travel here for a wedding this week.
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The Importance of the Virtues When Men Have Lost Their Reason
MARCH 19, 2021BY MICHAEL KROMSince acting rightly requires a well-formed intellect coupled with rightly ordered desires, moral formation is as much about training the passions as it is about making arguments.
In his recent review of my book here at Public Discourse, Christopher Tollefsen argues that “practical reasons are where the action is if one is to engage agents, the culture at large, and even popes, in moral discussion, debate, and deliberation. There really is no alternative in an ethics of virtue, acquired or infused.” While he finds my presentation of Aquinas’s moral, economic, and political theory clear, “gripping and concrete” as far as it goes, he takes issue with my focus on the virtues and claims that they cannot do the work “of practical guidance in and engaging with a confused world.”
While I will not respond point-by-point to the issues he raises, I’d like to take this opportunity to articulate why formation in the virtues should be emphasized—not as an alternative to a practical reasons approach, but as the broader horizon within which we educate for truth seeking.
We Need Both Virtue and Practical Reason
When I say that virtue must be our focus, I do not mean to oppose this to a concern with practical reason. There can be no either/or here, only both/and. In addition to the “evangelical” reason of showing the beauty of the examined life, there is a pedagogical reason: coming to know and do what practical reason demands requires a culture of life that trains us in the way to go. This is all the more apparent in times like ours, when, as Shakespeare’s Mark Antony has it, judgment has “fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason.”
Aquinas follows Aristotle in saying that “the truth of the practical intellect depends on conformity with right appetite.” Reason may not be a slave of the passions, but neither is it their master. Rather, reason governs as a benevolent king who knows that his free subjects “are not wholly subject to command.” Well-ordered passions are disposed both to 1) permit practical reason the freedom to determine the right thing to do in the concrete circumstances of our lives, 2) follow reason’s orders once a decree has been issued. By contrast, disordered passions interfere with reason’s work, narrowing its focus on lower and more immediate goods. Even if we have developed our practical reason in the abstract, only those who have coupled prudence with the other cardinal and theological virtues can be relied upon to consistently put the truth in action.
Since acting rightly requires a well-formed intellect coupled with rightly ordered desires, moral formation is as much about training the passions as it is about making arguments. Of course, my book does not itself provide a moral formation, but its concern is with this larger project of making ethical living attractive. As I see it, if I have done my task well, the reader will be more attentive to arguments of practical reason, and more eager to put reason into practice.
Assuming I am reading him rightly here, I disagree with Tollefsen when he says that “Getting to the bottom of both our agreements and disagreements is an essential preliminary to our mutually shared end of engagement with [the broader] culture.” While there are irreconcilable disagreements between traditional and new natural law theories, and I do not want to be mistaken for someone who speaks of “my truth,” we cannot wait to settle such things while Rome is burning. We work toward the same end of building up a culture of life, and we must work together, even if our strategies and theories do not entirely mesh. Modeling charitable public discourse, especially when we disagree, will prove attractive to those looking for sanity when all about them have lost their reason.
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The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) has been adopted in all 50 states based on the recommendation of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), although not all using identical language. Now the ULC is considering revision of the UDDA.
This is a good idea but only if the revision will correct the problems with the current UDDA replacing it with a statute that protects life until true death. A person’s death is the cessation of his own life on earth. The precise moment when his life ends is of paramount importance. There is no ground for legal presumption or for less secure criteria. The right to live is the most basic right and no one ought to shorten life or hasten death. The state is obligated to protect the individual’s right to live as long as he is able. This obligation is independent of any other interests, assuming that the person is innocent of capital crime.
The UDDA states, “An individual who has sustained either 1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or 2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards.”
The first (1) “irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions” has been accepted for eons. “Irreversible” was added by the UDDA but that had traditionally been determined by waiting sufficient time for some form of biological destruction to occur so as to be certain that death had actually occurred.
The second (2) “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem” also known as “brain death” and death by neurological criteria (DNC) has been, since its inception, and continues to be controversial, even if widely practiced in medicine and legally protected.
Ideal Statute Wording
An ideal statute should be worded in the negative to protect lives. The ideal statute should protect the person from being declared dead when they might still be alive. Suggested wording is, “No one shall be declared dead unless respiratory and circulatory systems and the entire brain have been destroyed. Such destruction shall be determined in accord with universally accepted medical standards.”[1]
It is essential that determination of death by neurological criteria (DNC) be understood by the general public, all clergy, doctors, nurses, attorneys, legislators et al.
In recent legal cases, loved ones of patients who were declared dead according to neurological criteria with continued beating heart, circulation, and many other signs of life, fought to protect and preserve the life of their loved one (Jahi McMath, Israel Stinson, Aden Hailu, Bobby Reyes, Allen Callaway, Miranda Lawson, Areen Chakrabarti).
The Supreme Court in NV unanimously (7-0) ruled that the case of Aden Hailu be sent back to the lower court because they were not convinced that the hospital’s use of American Academy of Neurology Guidelines (AANG) fulfilled the statutory requirement of “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain including the brain stem.” The statute in NV was shortly thereafter changed to codify that the determination of DNC must be made in accordance with the AANG. The Supreme Court also questioned whether the AANG adequately measure the required “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain.” The AANG although widely used are not evidence based and do not fulfill the statutory requirement of “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain.”
Neurologist D. Alan Shewmon wrote, “It has long been recognized that in some cases of clinically diagnosed brain death, certain brain structures may not only be preserved but actually function, such as the hypothalamus.”[2] This is the case in patients without diabetes insipidus, low thyroid hormone, or the inability to maintain temperature control.
Irreversibility
Irreversibility is not an empirical concept, i.e., not directly observable or provable by experience or experiment. “Both destruction of the brain and the cessation of its functions are, in principle, directly observable; such observations can serve as evidence. Irreversibility, however, of any kind, is a property about which we can learn only by inference from prior experience. It is not an observable condition. Hence, it cannot serve as evidence, nor can it rightly be made part of an empirical criterion of death.”[3]
The destruction of the brain is what is convincing of irreversibility, not vice versa. “But if there is no proof of complete destruction, then any declaration that a cessation of function is absolutely irreversible is a presumption, even if well grounded, which is contingent on the current state of medical knowledge and on the availability of adequate life-support systems in the concrete circumstances. Even if the presumption is correct, it establishes … no necessary link with destruction of the brain. If it is incorrect, the patient may possibly be cured. Thus, whether right or wrong, a presumption as to the irreversibility of a lack of brain function is insufficient ground for removing a patient’s vital organs or for immediate autopsy, cremation, or burial.”[4]
Function, functions, functioning
The UDDA states “all functions of the entire brain” must have ceased. The brain has many functions, some of which continue even after “brain death” is declared. To exclude some functions and not others does not meet the statutory requirement of cessation of all functions of the entire brain.
Absence of functioning does not necessarily mean cessation of all functions.
The UDDA has sought to turn a “cessation of all brain functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem” into a general criterion of death. This is “a fundamental category mistake: to take that which functions to be simply identical with its functioning. Yet, if something irreversibly ceases to function, its existence is not necessarily extinguished thereby; it merely becomes permanently idle.[5]Nonfunction, no matter what prognostic qualifiers are used with it, is not the same thing as destruction.”[6] E.g., When an automobile is parked, it is not functioning, but the functions are still there; a driver and fuel are needed.
Importance of “destruction” of circulatory and respiratory systems and the entire brain
It is important to note that “destruction” is the only acceptable interpretation of the phrase “irreversible cessation of all functions.” Destruction indicates the loss of structural potentiality for functioning, i.e., the cessation of the organic capacity to function.
The condition or state known as “death,” once it has occurred is totally incapable of being in any way affected by medical progress. Prognosis, whether of recovery or destruction, is irrelevant to any determination of death; nor is the impossibility of even minimal recovery the same thing as death.
Accepted medical standards vs. legislating AANG as the only standard
Many sets of criteria to declare DNC have been considered “accepted medical standards” beginning with the Harvard criteria in 1968. Between 1968 and 1978 there were more than 30 sets of criteria considered as “accepted medical standards.” Lewis et al. propose a revised uniform determination of death act (RUDDA), which would effectively make the AANG and any future updates as the only “accepted” medical standard.
Importance of accurate language
Medical personnel may use language about death that is imprecise. For example, doctors may tell the patient or family that a patient who had a cardiac arrest and was successfully resuscitated had “died” but really what was observed was the cessation of the person’s circulation and respiration. The patient’s condition was obviously not irreversible. The patient may have been near to death and might have died if an intervention had not been attempted and then succeeded, but the patient was never truly dead. Many seem to be unaware or ignorant of the word “irreversible” even when using the cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions as criteria for death as in the UDDA.
UDDA – two ways to declare death
The UDDA has at least two ways to declare a person “dead.” This is not satisfactory for medicine, the law, and the general public. Very few of these have been presented with sufficient information to discern the differences that have been placed into law since the Harvard criteria in 1968, continuing with the President’s Commission in 1981 and the AANG.
Signs of life before and after DNC “brain death”
The public has not been informed that a person declared DNC, i.e, “brain dead” still has a heart beating on its own, circulation, respiration (exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the tissues albeit on a ventilator).
Other signs of life continue such as wound healing, which is a complicated diffuse process throughout the body of many factors circulating in the blood and interacting with cells and tissues and maintained by the liver and white blood cells.
There is urine production, maintenance of body temperature, homeostasis of many interdependently functioning organs and systems, and if the patient is a pregnant woman, even the ability to carry and nourish the baby in the womb.
All of the above do not occur in a corpse but often occur in a patient after the declaration of “brain death.” Doctors may refer to the patient declared dead using DNC as a corpse, but the patient still has signs of life unlike a true corpse.
All functions are not evaluated and some which are functioning are ignored.
Unless all functions of the entire brain are evaluated it is not possible to determine that all functions have ceased. Laboratory tests show that parts of the brain such as the hypothalamus may still function and secrete hormones needed for the body including the brain to function optimally. If a loved one has brain injury and “brain death” is being considered, it is reasonable to demand that blood tests for thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), T3, T4, and other hormones such as adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) be done and the patient be treated since even current AANG are supposed to rule out endocrine abnormalities. The AANG do not require testing for hypothalamic-pituitary hormones nor for treatment if thyroid hormone levels are below normal. No revisions of the UDDA should allow patients with parts of the brain still functioning to be declared dead.
Currently patients declared “brain dead” might be treated with thyroid hormone after the declaration of “brain death” to benefit organs for transplantation, not for the health of the unresponsive patient. The AANG mention endocrine abnormalities but do not require blood tests or treatment to normalize low thyroid hormone levels that may occur with brain swelling and affect brain functions. Thyroid hormone is essential to life and health, especially at times when healing is necessary.
A function of the brain is to control normal body temperature. This occurs but is often ignored as demonstration of a functioning brain.
Procedure of the Apnea Test (PAT)
A function of the brainstem part of the brain is to take a breath when carbon dioxide waste product levels in the blood increase. To exclude that this part of the brain is functioning, the procedure of the apnea test (PAT) is often done or attempted.
A patient must be on a ventilator to be considered for DNC (i.e., “brain death”). To make a clinical declaration of “brain death,” the PAT may be done. The PAT may be performed after the unconscious brain-injured patient does not respond to pain stimuli or voice commands, and does not show functioning of some brain stem reflexes, but not all are tested.
The PAT includes complete disconnection from the ventilator without any breaths being given for 10 minutes or longer. This causes the waste products of carbon dioxide and acids to increase. If the patient is not observed to take a breath or gasp during this time and the arterial blood gas sample shows a carbon dioxide level of at least 60 mmHg or 20 mmHg above baseline, the patient may be declared officially “dead” by “brain death” neurological criteria.
Doctors, without notice or consent, do the PAT because they may consider it part of their “neurological exam.” However, it is more properly termed a “procedure” because the life-preserving ventilator is removed and oxygen may be administered. There are other steps in the procedure including obtaining arterial blood samples. Full and complete information should be provided so that the family has the opportunity to decline and prevent it from being done on their loved one. The PAT has no clinical benefit for the brain-injured patient, only risks, including deleterious effects on brain swelling. Adverse changes in blood pressure and the increased carbon dioxide acid waste products can make brain swelling worse. Other side effects that have been reported during the PAT are low oxygen (hypoxemia), arrhythmias, pneumothorax, subcutaneous emphysema, pulmonary hypertension, heart attack, and death. Even brief episodes of low blood pressure may adversely harm the already injured brain. Usually, deliberate increases in carbon dioxide are in direct contrast to the care of brain-injured patients. Even if oxygen is administered during the PAT, this does not prevent the potentially lethal effects of increased carbon dioxide on brain swelling. In addition, giving oxygen may depress the reflex to breathe and it may only be low oxygen to which some of the brainstem centers would respond. Purposely making the patient low in oxygen to test lower brainstem functioning would be unconscionable. The PAT does not test for the absence of all brainstem function and may cause injury to the brain.
Full and complete information must be provided to the family or surrogate so that they can decline the PAT. The NV statute does not require informing the family/surrogate or their consent for the PAT.
Reasons to repeal and replace UDDA
Life is a good. Death is the absence of life. There should be only one universally accepted medical standard for the determination of death since there is only one truly irreversible change in state that occurs when a living person changes to a true corpse.
After true death—whatever happens to the remains of the body, whether it involves putrefaction, embalming, or cremation, is describable in terms of disintegration, dissolution, and destruction of the organism that was formerly present. No one should be declared dead unless life has ceased and death has truly occurred.
Not only do some Catholics object to “brain death” but so do others of varied religious and ethnic backgrounds, such as Orthodox Jews, Japanese Shintoists, Native Americans, Buddhists, Muslims, and other Christians.
The ideal statute should protect the person from being declared dead when they are still alive. Wording the statute in the negative, which would set minimum criteria that must be satisfied before death is declared, can do this. This minimum must fulfill a change of state from alive to dead.
A model statute is: No one shall be declared dead unless the circulatory and respiratory systems and the entire brain have been destroyed. Such destruction shall be determined in accordance with universally accepted medical standards.
What can we do?
Write to the Uniform Law Commission and tell them that the UDDA needs to be repealed and replaced by “No one shall be declared dead unless respiratory and circulatory systems and the entire brain have been destroyed. Such destruction shall be determined in accord with universally accepted medical standards.” Full and complete information and the opportunity to decline or consent must be provided for being declared dead using neurological criteria.The Honorable Samuel Thumma, Chairman Members of the Determination of Death Act Committee Uniform Law Commission 111 N. Wabash Avenue, Suite 1010 Chicago, IL 60602 info@uniformlaws.org 1-(312) 450-6600
Nguyen, Doyen. 2018. The New Definitions of Death for Organ Donation; A Multidisciplinary Analysis form the Perspective of Christian Ethics. Bern Switzerland. Peter Lang.
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[1] Byrne, Paul A.; O’Reilly, Sean; Quay, Paul M and Salsich, Peter W. 1982/83 Brain Death – the Patient, the Physician, and Society. Gonzaga Law Review. 18(3):429-516.
[2] D. Alan Shewmon, Brain Death or Brain Dying? 2012. J. Child Neurology 27 (4), 5 (2012)
[3] Byrne Paul A.; O’Reilly, Sean; and Quay, Paul M. 1979. Brain Death-An Opposing Viewpoint. JAMA 242:1985-1990.
[5] The distinction between permanent and irreversible is used to differentiate between a patient e.g., whose circulatory arrest may be considered permanent if the decision has been made not to attempt resuscitation, even though it may be reversible if life support is administered.
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tonym7412:17 AM (10 hours ago)
ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT / DEEP CALLS TO DEEP 
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