have you read shuman's report? they say these people will die quickly. they'll quickly go to car cardiopulmonary death. >> host: sometimes. >> guest: can be 20 years. before the form on bioethics acceptedded it as true, and pointed out there were 150 cases opposed to zero where people did survive longer than the week. the first brain death was promoted, we said couple hours to a day. if you're brain dead, you put your back in the ventlator there's little time for your heart to stop. >> host: what about the quality of life? just noting that, there that was not something, and some of the folks who reviewed the book noticed that. i can't cover everything in the book, i appreciate that, but what about the quality of life? even if you are brain dead, and you survive, let's say, 20 years on a respiratory, that's an ethical question again, about when one disconnects that. there's a quality of life dimension, and that's something that wondered if you had comments on that because not thatch on it in the book. >> guest: there's nothing. i don't think there's anyth

chuck shuman called mitt romney the poster child for this and suggested it should be called the romneyg we will be hearing more of that,. >> shepard: shep james rosen on capitol hill, thanks. mitt romney is officially looking for a running mate, if you don't have anything going on. now that he has pretty much wrapped up the g.o.p. nomination. he says his long-time advisor beth meyers will lead the search. she was his chief of staff when he was governor of massachusetts. mitt romney says he he plans to choose a v.p. nominee before the republic convention in august but is he not telling us who is on any kind of list. analysts say the top contenders would include the florida senator marco rubio. ohio senator rob portman, bob mcdonnell. new jersey governor chris christie and former minnesota governor tim pawlenty. ann tells abc this past weekend is the first time they talked serious buy about possible running mates. diane sawyer of abc news asked the romneys what message they would send to the president and first lady? >> start packing. [ laughter ] >> that's what i would like to say. obvi

. >> guest: have you read shuman's report? they would quickly go to cardiopulmonary death, correct? that is a very. >> host: it depends how they are managed in the hospital. .. >> guest: you go directly to your heart-stopping. >> host: okay, there's variation in time -- >> guest: variation? twenty years. >> host: what about the quality of life? just noting that was not something, and some of the folks who reviewed the book noticed, i mean, i know you can't cover everything in a book, i appreciate that, but what about the quality of life? even if you are brain dead and you survive, let's say, 20 years on a respirator, i mean, that's an ethical question, again, about when one disconnects that. but, um, there is a quality of life dimension, and that's something that wondered if you had comments on it because it's not that much in the book. >> guest: there's nothing. i don't think there's anything on it. it wasn't my concern. i was trying to answer this question, when is a person dead. not should they be kept alive forever. i wasn't making any moral judgments on whether they should be k

have you read shuman's report? the other thing they're saying is these people will die quickly. they will quickly go to cardiopull my their death, correct? >> host: it depends how they manage them in the hospital. sometimes they can last months as you note in your book. >> guest: twenty years. >> host: that i'm not familiar with. >> guest: twenty years. before the -- the president's council on bioethics actually accepted -- >> host: yeah. >> guest: -- shoeman's paper as true. and he pointed out there were 150 cases as opposed to zero where people did survive longer than the week. well, you know, when brain death first was promoted they said a couple hours to a day. if you're brain dead, you put your back on the ventilator, you've got very little time before you go directly to your heart stops beating. >> host: okay, fair enough, there's variation in time. >> guest: variation? twenty years. >> host: what about the quality of life? >> guest: yeah. >> host: that was not something, and some of the folks who reviewed the book noticed that -- i mean, you can't cover everything in a bo