Byrne, Paul A.
21 Articles at Lifeissues.net

Dr. Byrne is a Board Certified Neonatologist and Pediatrician. He is the Founder of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, MO. He is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at University of Toledo, College of Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. Dr. Byrne is past-President of the Catholic Medical Association (USA), formerly Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at St. Louis University in St. Louis, MO and Creighton University in Omaha, NE. He was Professor of Pediatrics and Chairman of the Pediatric Department at Oral Roberts University School of Medicine and Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Tulsa, OK. He is author and producer of the film "Continuum of Life" and author of the books "Life, Life Support and Death," "Beyond Brain Death," and "Is 'Brain Death' True Death?" Dr. Byrne has presented testimony on "life issues" to nine state legislatures beginning in 1967. He opposed Dr. Kevorkian on the television program "Cross-Fire." He has been interviewed on Good Morning America, public television in Japan and participated in the British Broadcasting Corporation Documentary "Are the Donors Really Dead?" Dr. Byrne has authored articles against euthanasia, abortion, and "brain death" in medical journals, law literature and lay press. Paul was married to Shirley for forty-eight years until she entered her eternal reward on Christmas 2005. They are the proud parents of twelve children, grandparents of thirty-one grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.

Contact: pbyrne@toast.net

Website:http://www.lifeguardianfoundation.org

Articles

Judge rules Jahi McMath may not be dead

States like Nevada have by law now made use of one set of "brain death" criteria a requirement. In Nevada the doctors will declare "brain death" without your permission, as if use of these criteria are universally accepted.

Date posted: 2017-09-30

Dr. Paul Byrne: From preemies to end-of-life issues, one man has made a difference

When five-year-old Lilliana Dennis was born in February 2011 in Indianapolis, doctors informed her mom and dad that she suffered from a rare genetic condition that was "incompatible with life."

Date posted: 2017-07-30

Aden Hailu appeal to Nevada Supreme Court

Aden is a living person with an injured brain in need of food, water, thyroid supplements and support of ventilation. Ventilation can have the effect of oxygen in and carbon dioxide out only in a living person with functioning lungs, beating heart and circulation. Aden is not a dead body.

Date posted: 2015-08-19

Judge rules: stop life support

Aden was declared “brain dead” on July 18, or thereabouts. Aden has a beating heart, circulation, and respiration. She has normal temperature and some thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). These occur because she has a functioning brain (hypothalamus). But her treating doctors say this is not in their criteria. Aden has not had intravenous nutrition, which is not adequate nutrition, since her surgery on April 1. Aden has not deteriorated. Fanuel Gebreyes, father and Guardian of Aden, and her 2 younger sisters and brother want Aden to live. Judge has ruled that it is not in best interest to continue treatment of Aden, which overrules the direction and desire of father and Guardian.

Date posted: 2015-07-28

Jahi is alive -- praise the Lord and pass the ammunition

Jahi McMath is a 14-year-old girl who was 13 when a death certificate was issued for her by the coroner in Oakland, California.

Date posted: 2015-05-21

Jahi McMath, can you move?

A video recording of an ice cube touched to the foot of Jahi McMath has been distributed.

Date posted: 2014-02-23

Do you really want to be an organ donor?

Life on earth continues until true death. Prior to the desire to get organs for transplantation, no one was declared dead with a beating heart, circulation, or breathing. Every organ for transplantation is taken from a living person. Would anyone with common sense believe that a cadaver, a dead body, would have organs that could be transplanted?

Date posted: 2013-02-13

Catholic teaching on death and organ transplantatio

Catholic morality is expected to be good for not only Catholics but also many others. Pope Benedict XVI instructed morally on organ transplantation on November 7, 2008. Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II, the Councils of Vienne and the Fifth Lateran and the Catechism of the Catholic Church also contribute related teachings. The following is a compilation of these teachings.

Date posted: 2013-02-12

Liberty is necessary

Liberty to protect and preserve life is negated if the ability to defend (gun laws) and the ability to take care of our own health (Decisions by Committee) is taken away.

Date posted: 2013-02-02

Organs for transplantation must be from living

A declaration of "brain death" indicates no doubt about true death; the patient is living evidenced by a beating heart with circulation and respiration. It is not biologically or medically sound to apply the word "death" to such a patient. Would anyone with common sense embalm, cremate, or bury someone when the heart is beating with circulation and respiration? Patients declared "brain dead" or "heart dead" are living, but they have organs that someone stronger and more powerful desires for transplantation.

Date posted: 2012-12-13

Why are Pastoral Care Workers ignorant of the realities of "brain death"?

Today, Pastoral Care Workers are routinely asked to consult and actually encourage patients in hospitals to become organ donors. They are told to believe the lie that so-called "brain dead" patients are truly dead, when all their senses are telling them just the opposite.

Date posted: 2012-02-16

Vital organ transplantation--not truly dead

The August 29, 2000, Address of Blessed John Paul II is often quoted by those in support of obtaining vital organs for transplantation, but other statements by Pope John Paul II and a more recent statement by Pope Benedict XVI are ignored.

Date posted: 2011-08-18

Vital Organ Donation

It seems clear that in certain cases we are playing games with human lives for utilitarian gain. So glaring is the reality of this issue that there are those who now argue that doctors should not be burdened with determination of death criteria, since the good of organ donation outweighs the harm (killing) done to the donor. Scary, isn't it?

Date posted: 2011-05-30

Do your organs belong to the government?

Organs for transplantation are primarily obtained from those declared "brain dead." This is labeled as DBD. These are patients who have disease or injury to their brain manifested by altered functioning of their brain. They typically have a beating heart, normal blood pressure, respiration supported by a ventilator, and they move and squirm when cut into without first being administered a paralyzing drug or an anesthetic.

Date posted: 2011-01-21

End of life planning--the Blumenaurer way

"Nonrehabilitable sick!" Aren't these the ones who "need" an advance directive? Rep. Earl Blumenauer should explain what he means concerning end-of-life planning to be part of Medicare as being "a step in the right direction."

Date posted: 2011-01-04

Death starts when life has ended!

It would be morally more appropriate, if not mandatory, for the transplant disciplines to be more transparent about procurement processes. Establishing moral and legal clarity would create room for people to make well-informed decisions about organ donation.

Date posted: 2010-01-26

The demise of "brain death"

We are bombarded with propaganda that encourages organ donation. For an organ to be suitable for transplantation it must be taken from a living person.

Date posted: 2008-09-08

"Brain death"--enemy of life and truth

For vital organs to be suitable for transplantation, however, they must be living organs removed from living human beings. Moreover, as noted above, persons condemned to death as "brain dead" are not "certainly dead" but, to the contrary, are certainly alive.

Date posted: 2008-06-25

More on Conception

It appears as though Professor Dianne Irving did not read my entire article. Words, like conception, have definition and meaning. The roots of words never change, no matter how distorted. A true physician always is defined in relationship to the patient. A veterinarian is defined by beast and brutes. The embryologist is defined by a time period from the zygote to the fetus (8 weeks). The patient is a person. The person is an individual substance of a nature rational. Human life on earth is the substantial fact of the unity of soul and body. The formation of the body at the instant of conception manifests the person created by God.

Date posted: 2008-06-25

Person on earth begins at conception

Life for every person begins with creation by the Creator. (Cf. CCC, 327; 296.) The reference to creation is prior to time. Life is the substantial fact of the existence in time. Human time begins with Adam and Eve. The living person is visible. The soul is the life of the person. It cannot be seen because it is spiritual.

Date posted: 2008-06-16

Vital organ donation

You've probably seen TV commercials, billboards, and magazine articles encouraging you to give the "gift of life" through vital organ donation. It saves lives. It gives meaning to a wasteful, tragic death. But before you fill out an organ donor card, here are a few things to think about.

Date posted: 2007-08-20