D. Alan Shewmon, The Dead Donor Rule: Lessons from Linguistics.

• Author: Shewmon, D. Alan
• Position: Abstracts

D. Alan Shewmon, The Dead Donor Rule: Lessons from Linguistics, 14 KENNEDY INST. ETHICS J. 277 (2004).

American society traditionally has assumed a univocal notion of "death," largely because we have only one word for it and, until recently, have not needed a more nuanced notion. The reality of death-processes does not preclude the reality of death events. Linguistically, "death" can be understood only as an event; there are other words for the process. Our death vocabulary should expand to reflect multiple events along the process from sickness to decomposition. Depending on context, some death-related events may constitute a...