Bioethics for the People

Devan and Tyler talk with Dr. Adam Omelianchuk about a new publication on the Dead Donor Rule. We discuss the origins of the rule and why there is controversy about when and how we can tell if someone is dead. They talk about a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Find it here: Carter Winberg, Ian Ball & Robert D. Truog, Contextualizing the Dead Donor Rule in an Era of Voluntary Euthanasia, 395 New Eng. J. Med. 194 (2026).

Dead Donor Rule and Organ Donation Bioethics for the People

Additional Material and Readings:

•

Michael Nair-Collins, Sydney R Green, Angelina R Sutin, “Abandoning the dead donor rule? A national survey of public views on death and organ donation,” (2015) J Med Ethics 41(4):297-302. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2014-102229.

•

Rob Stein, A New Proposal for Organ Donation Sparks Concern, NPR (July 8, 2026), https://www.npr.org/2026/07/08/nx-s1-5883714/organ-transplant-death-donation.

•

Adam Omelianchuk, Alexander Morgan Capron, Lainie Friedman Ross, Arthur R. Derse, James L. Bernat, David Magnus. "Neither Ethical nor Prudent: Why Not to Choose Normothermic Regional Perfusion" Hastings Center Reports. 2024

•

Adam Omelianchuk, James Bernat, Arthur Caplan, David Greer, Christos Lazaridis, Ariane Lewis, Thaddeus Pope, Lainie Friedman Ross, David Magnus. " Revise the Uniform Determination of Death Act to Align the Law With Practice Through Neurorespiratory Criteria." Neurology. 2022 Mar 29; 98 (1) : 532-536.

•

Adam Omelianchuk. " The inviolateness of life and equal protection: a defense of the dead-donor rule. " Theor Med Bioeth. 2022 Feb ; 43 (1): 1-27.

•

Adam Omelianchuk. " Brain Death as the End of a Human Organism as a Self-moving Whole." J Med Philos. 2021 Oct 1; 46 (5) : 530-560.

•

Scott J. Schweikart, “Reexamining the Flawed Legal Basis of the “Dead Donor Rule” as a Foundation for Organ Donation Policy,” AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(12):E1019-1024. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2020.1019

•

Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Ethics Committee. (2016, December). Ethical considerations of imminent death donation white paper. Health Resources and Services Administration. https://www.hrsa.gov/optn/professionals/resources/ethical-considerations/imminent-death-donation-white-paper

Occupational Therapy featuring Sarah Jean Barton Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb Download

In this episode we talk with occupational therapist Dr. Sarah Jean Barton about occupation, disability, theology and more.

Behavioral Health Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

This week we talk with primary care physician Dr. Zachary Sartor about his work in behavioral health. How are bodily health and mental health related? Why is it important for primary care physicians to treat both?

Teaching with Bioethics for the People Podcast Featuring Dr. Dolores Morris Download

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Dolores Morris, Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In addition to being a brilliant philosopher, Dr. Morris teaches bioethics to undergraduate students using this podcast! Learn how she does it and more on this week’s episode.

Read more about Dr. Morris’ teaching on her Substack here.

Wondering how much time physicians save using ambient AI? Find the answer here

In this episode, Tyler and Devan talk with longtime friend of the pod Steve Foley. Steve is a retired psychologist and a big fan of clinical ethics and deep, meaningful conversations.

Deep Thought with Steve Foley Tyler Gibb and Devan Stahl Download

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Keisha Ray about the environment as a social determinant of health and the unequal ways the environment affects our communities. Communities that live in polluted environments experience worse health outcomes.

Environmental Bioethics featuring Keisha Ray Download

For more on this topic from Dr. Ray:

•

The Bioethics of Environmental Injustice, AJOB

In this introduction to Inked by Faith, we begin the story of Operation Tat-Type, a Cold War civil defense program that blood-typed and tattooed thousands of Americans in the early 1950s, including children.

The series begins with a family discovery: a grandmother’s tattoo; never hidden, just never talked about. From there, we ask a larger question—not about secrets or conspiracies, but about how communities normalize extraordinary measures in moments of fear… and how those memories fade.

This episode sets the stage for the stories still waiting to be told.

What Patients Want to Know From AI Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

Dr. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby and Dr. Kristin Kostick-Quenet

Read More Here:

•

Goodman KE, Blumenthal-Barby J, Redberg RF "FAIRS - A Framework for Evaluating the Inclusion of Sex in Clinical Algorithms." N Engl J Med. 2025 Jan 8;Online ahead of print Pubmed PMID: 39778166

•

Hurley ME, Lang BH, Kostick-Quenet KM, Smith JN, Blumenthal-Barby J "Patient Consent and The Right to Notice and Explanation of AI Systems Used in Health Care." Am J Bioeth. 2024 Sep 17;Online ahead of print:1-13. Pubmed PMID: 39288291

•

Kostick-Quenet, K and Rahimzadeh, V "Ethical hazards of health data governance in the metaverse." Nature machine intelligence. 2023 May;5(5):1-3. Pubmed PMID: 37334182

•

Rahimzadeh, V., Kostick-Quenet, K., Blumenthal Barby, J., McGuire, A. "Ethics Education for Healthcare Professionals in the Era of chatGPT and Other Large Language Models: Do We Still Need It?." Am J Bioeth. 2023 Jul 24;1-11. Pubmed PMID: 37487184

Combating Bias in AI Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In this episode we talk with Dr. Benjamin Collins about combating bias in AI.

Read More from Dr. Collins Here:

•

Addressing ethical issues in healthcare artificial intelligence using a lifecycle-informed process

•

Role and Use of Race in AI/ML Models Related to Health

•

Recommendations for Clinicians, Technologists, and Healthcare Organizations on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: A Position Statement from the Society of General Internal Medicine

•

A Call to Partner With Communities To Hear Diverse Sociocultural Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

AI and Clinical Ethics: Featuring Dr. Lukas Meier Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In this episode we interview Dr. Lukas J. Meierabout an algorithm he helped develop to help solve clinical ethics dilemmas.

Check out his team’s paper on this project here

Student formation in the Age of AI Featuring Dr. Jeffrey P. Bishop

In this episode we talk with Dr. Jeffrey P. Bishopabout how AI will shape our minds and habits and how we need to rethink medical training in light of the promises and perils of AI in health care.

AI and Metnal Health Care Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In this episode, we chat with Drs. Ami Palmer and David Schwan to discuss the wild west of mental health and wellness apps using AI.

Stay tuned for a link to an article on this topic written by Drs. Palmer and Schwan in May 2025 in the Hastings Center Report.

AI in Medicine Part 2 Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In this episode Devan and Tyler discuss the most common ethical concerns raised in the field of AI and clinical care.

AI in Medicine Part I Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In this episode Devan and Tyler discuss the current uses of AI in clinical medicine.