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Re:What Does It Mean to Die? by rocqua on Thursday February 01, 2018 @04:59PM (#16286323)
Responding only to a small part,

> And if the person is already dead, in the eyes of the doctors, what "undesirable outcome" could their measures have?

Even if doctors believe someone to be dead, when family members disagree, doctors can reasonably extrapolate that those family members will be distressed when life support is stopped. Unless those doctors have no empathy at all, that would be an undesirable outcome for them. A slightly more cynical view would include doctors fearing media backlash and legal action.

Re:What Does It Mean to Die? by AstralStorm on Thursday February 01, 2018 @06:07PM (#16286822)
Media backslash and legal action is probably at some point cheaper than keeping a clinically dead person alive. Heck, even than cynical strong PR campaign to shut the controversy up. While nobody wants to do it, like layoffs, it sometimes has to be done...