For almost 50 years since the influential Ad Hoc Committee of Harvard suggestion to expand the traditional circulatory standard to determine death into a twofold standard (i.e. circulatory and neurological determination of death), a number of vexing practical and theoretical debates have arisen related to the ethics of procuring vital organs from cadavers.

Some of the old controversies still generate debate, occasionally revived by new cases. For instance, the McMath case in the US has reinvigorated the fundamental problem of whether death should be treated as a scientific phenomenon to be discovered or rather as a social construction to be chosen. Other controversies are relatively new. This is the case of controlled and uncontrolled donation after circulatory death and the several ways in which these protocols might threaten the dead donor rule.

Along with these and other debates – such as pediatric organ donation and organ donation euthanasia, – much science and scholarship has been developed on the anatomo-physiology of death, on the public understanding and attitudes towards death and organ procurement, and even on what responsible scholarship would mean in a topic plagued by conflicting interests and values.

This conference offers an opportunity for novel and senior international scholars to share their most recent research with other academics working in the field. The conference combines keynote speakers’ presentations with peer reviewed free oral communications.

When: September 7-8, 2016

Where: Palacio de la Madraza Salón de Caballeros XXIV Calle Oficios 14, Granada 18001, Spain

Keynote Speakers: Stuart Youngner, Karen Gervais, Dale Gardiner, Charlotte Harrison, Christopher Dolan, Eric Racine, Michael Nair-Collins, Alicia Pérez Blanco

Organizing Committee:

Pablo de Lora, Autonomous University of Madrid.
David Rodríguez-Arias, University of Granada.
Alberto Molina Pérez, University of Granada.

Further information:

• International Conference on the Ethics of Organ Donation