Matters of Life & Death: Archie Battersbee 1: The invention of ‘brain death’, a breakdown in trust, the child’s best interests, and how to turn off life support

2022-08-24T17:00:00+01:00

Twelve-year-old Archie Battersbee died on 7 August, after months of legal wrangling between doctors who believed he was brain dead and wished to end life support, and his family who resisted this. This tragic case has captured a lot of media attention, and in this episode we try to unpick some of the complicated medical and ethical challenges thrown up by the story. Why is it so much harder today than in the past to actually determine if a person has died? How can, and should, the courts overrule the wishes of a child’s parents regarding medical treatment (or its withdrawal)? And can Christians be pro-life and anti-euthanasia, while still supporting the doctors’ wish to allow Archie to die?

For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173

Topics

Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Martin Rees 1: Advances in artificial intelligence, the Eliza effect, passing the Turing Test, and the problem of other minds

2022-12-28T18:00:00Z

Today’s episode is a little different from normal as we’re going to begin a short series sharing a recent conversation John had with Lord Martin Rees, the astronomer royal.
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Archie Battersbee 2: Doubts over the brain scans, the end of ‘doctor knows best’, sucked into the culture wars and protective power of attorney

2022-08-31T17:00:00Z

Archie’s case underlines the growing crisis over the lack of trust many ordinary people have in medical professionals.
Shows
Earthquakes and cancer: Why is God’s good world so full of suffering? with Sharon Dirckx

2024-11-20T13:20:00Z

Christians normally explain away human-caused suffering by pointing to God giving us free will, and our sinful natures using that to harm ourselves and each other. But what about all the things entirely out of our control which cause so much sadness, from natural disasters to genetic diseases?

More from Matters of Life and Death

Shows
Vaccine conspiracies, mistrust and catastrophism: How the church lost its way, with Dr Francis Collins

2024-11-12T09:19:00Z

Francis Collins is one of the leading scientists of his generation, a world-renowned geneticist who led the international project to map the human genome. In this episode we talk through his experiences in public office as a Christian scientist and discuss how the US evangelical church became so polarised, divided and sceptical of good science, even when presented by faithful believers like him.
Shows
DNA, parenthood and selecting for IQ: The surprising return of eugenics

2024-11-06T10:54:00Z

Can someone else own your DNA, and what are the risks if genomes are passed around the economy as any other product? Next, a US start-up has apparently used UK volunteers’ genomic data to pursue its plans to offer couples the chance to screen their embryos for intelligence, beauty, and maybe more, all for a chunky sum of course.
Shows
Near death experiences

2024-10-30T18:00:00Z

Once dismissed as quackery or New Age woo, near death experiences are seeing something of a modern revival. A slew of serious scientists and doctors have begun studying the phenomenon, even constructing clinical trials to try and see what, if anything, goes on when someone is on the brink of death but is resuscitated successfully. And there is now an entire Christian industry of books and films about believers who claim to have ‘gone to heaven and come back’ after nearly dying.

Matters of Life & Death: Archie Battersbee 1: The invention of ‘brain death’, a breakdown in trust, the child’s best interests, and how to turn off life support

Topics

Related articles

Matters of Life & Death: Martin Rees 1: Advances in artificial intelligence, the Eliza effect, passing the Turing Test, and the problem of other minds

Matters of Life & Death: Archie Battersbee 2: Doubts over the brain scans, the end of ‘doctor knows best’, sucked into the culture wars and protective power of attorney

Earthquakes and cancer: Why is God’s good world so full of suffering? with Sharon Dirckx

More from Matters of Life and Death

Vaccine conspiracies, mistrust and catastrophism: How the church lost its way, with Dr Francis Collins

DNA, parenthood and selecting for IQ: The surprising return of eugenics

Near death experiences