Are All Brain Death Controversies on The Internet Fake Medical News?

[摘要] In a recent issue of CHEST (August 2018), Jones et al¹ concluded there were significant “inaccurate descriptions of brain death when compared to the national guidelines” in a cross-sectional analysis of readily accessible public websites on the Internet. The authors used the national guidelines as the reference standard and measure of accuracy of information, although these guidelines have been assigned the weakest level of supportive scientific evidence, “U” (ie, unknown or unproven).² It seems that Jones et al overlooked serious contemporary scientific, legal, ethical, and philosophical challenges to these national guidelines,³ which, if had been considered, undermine the authors’ implied claim of the “accuracy” of the national guidelines as a reference source.

[学科分类] 呼吸医学