Death Of The United Nations And The World Health Organization

In "What is Death? The Crisis of Criteria" Louis Pojman introduced four definitions of death and describes their benefits and limitations. The four definitions include loss of the soul, cardiopulmonary failure, whole brain death and neocortical brain death, of which the cardiopulmonary is typically most common. I intend to show, using the work of Jonathan Glover and reasoning, that the neocortical brain death definition holds significant merit and is truly more practical and ethical.

Death is made up by multiple concepts, which include, universality, irreversibility, nonfunctionality, causality, and personal mortality. Universality refers to the fact that all living things must eventually die since death is inevitable. Irreversibility remarks that death is irrevocable and final. Therefore, no organism that experiences death can come back to life. Nonfunctionality emphasizes the fact that death implies the cessation of physiological functions. Once a person dies, all the capabilities and functions the body has come to an ending. Causality highlights that there are biological reasons for death that can be internal and external. Internal causes of heath include diseases and external reasons can often be associated with physical trauma. Personal mortality is the last component and it is closely related to universality. It addresses the understanding that one must die as all living things eventually do.

Louis Pojman and Roland Puccetti took the position that neocortical brain death was the best definition of death. Many implications resulted from this, including views on assisted death and organ transplant. Would this lead to a slippery slope regarding what death was? Would this lead to an increase in organs available for donation? These are only some of the implications that arose from Pojman and Puccetti’s position. Looking at the neocortical brain death position versus the biologically integrative whole brain position allowed for judgement on which definition had better merit. I will argue that the biological whole brain position is more inconsistent in regards to application. As such, I will take the position of advocating for the

Criteria for declaring death using neurological criteria developed, and today a whole brain definition of death is widely used and recognized as an acceptable way to determine death. (Iltis)

It is the same if someone is brain dead and being sustained by artificial means; the body cannot survive so technology is stepping it to sustain the body, but the mind... the consciousness... is gone. The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Roe v Wade (1973) that the Fourteen Amendment's Due Process Clause protects "against state action the right to privacy, including a women's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy" (Cornell....year). Current medical research suggests that a fetus becomes viable just after the 20th-22nd week mark (Rysavy et al., 2015). Even going by the lower end of the range, that's about 5 months of pregnancy in which the fetus is still not viable. I truly believe that a woman should have the right to end a pregnancy before the viability period (as defined above) without facing legal barriers nor shame from society. There a difference between being "alive at conception," as pro-life individuals would

When is a person alive? At the moment he or she starts growing and as such being true, a human is alive when the embryo starts developing. At five weeks’ gestation, the heart, brain, and other organs start to form, at six there is a heartbeat. Abortion is atrocious and barbaric and as such, it is imperative to make abortion illegal. Abortions are the action taken for an unintended pregnancy, in certain circumstances, despite the use of contraceptives. The reasoning for an abortion ranges from financial, physical, and emotional disquietude. The ages of the aborting women and the weeks of gestation are the antithesis.

Traditionally death was defined with the heart-lung criterion which referred to cardio-respiratory death. The lower brain is what controls respiration therefore the destruction of the brainstem causes loss of all cardio-respiratory vital signs and so death ensues. In 1981, a new definition arose which was labelled as Whole Brain Death. It is defined as an individual being declared dead, despite continuing functional vital signs. (Pojman, pp. 102) There is no consciousness, no control of brainstem reflexes, and a loss of cognitive functions. The individual’s survival is dependent on artificial mechanisms that are provided by doctors. This newer definition was created due to modern technology being able to revive someone who is cardio-respiratory

While this statement is one hundred percent true, no one is entitled to choose when someone’s life should be effaced. But, according to science there is in fact no scientific consensus as to when human life begins. Therefore, personhood at conception is just a belief. You are not killing a human being, but rather just removing something that had the potential into becoming a human being. I believe that many take this fallacy into the fate of their own religious beliefs, which is incorrect since religious ideology should not be a foundation for law.

This standard only seemed important once the use of ventilators became popular in hospitals around the world. An argument made in favor of the total brain death is that people who have been determined ‘brain dead’ are great prospects for organ donation (Council, p. 8). As a way to support this argument it is said that because there is artificial respiration and circulation, the blood will continue to circulate throughout the body, which will in turn maintain the durability of the organs needed for surgical removal and therefore enhancing their use for their awaiting recipients (Council p. 8). There are also arguments that do not particularly agree with the total brain death standard and would assumingly prefer the cardiopulmonary standard of death. A downside pointed out by Robert D. Truog in the article “Is it Time to Abandon Brain Death?” is that as a hypothermic patient you are not able to be tested for brain death. According to Truog “the circularity of this reasoning can be clinically problematic, since hypothermic patients cannot be diagnosed as brain-dead but the absence of hypothermia is itself evidence of brain function” (Truog). While continuing to support his argument Truog mentions that “clinicians have observed that patients who fulfill the tests for brain

Per the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a diagnosis of brain death is considered legally and clinically dead. It is evidenced by coma, absence of brainstem reflexes and apnea, and is defined as an irreversible loss of brain function. (Brain Death) As a healthcare provider, it can be easy to make a

The definition of death is another issue paramount to this discussion. Robert Rakestraw, professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary in his article on this very subject

The United Nations executed its first official peacekeeping mission in 1956, in response to the international controversy sparked by the Suez Crisis. In an effort to alleviate the tension and bring peace to the region, the Canadian Foreign Minister, Lester Pearson, conceived of a plan whereby the United Nations could raise a multinational body of troops and utilize them to impose and keep peace.

To others, socializing is very important to life. And for others, communication is the key. The definition of death is "the act or fact of dying, permanent ending of all life in a person, animal, or plant" according to Webster's Dictionary. Mason defines death in terms of "irreversible failure of the cardiopulmonary system or consequently as a permanent state of tissue anoxia." (43). Another definition that should be addressed is the definition of brain death. According to Stedman's Medical Dictionary, brain death is "in the presence of cardiac activity, the permanent loss of cerebral function, manifested clinically by absence of purposive responses to external stimuli, absence of cephalic reflexes, apnea, and an isoelectric electroencephalogram for at least 30 minutes in the absence of hypothermia and poisoning by central nervous system depressants." (142). If the heart is functioning, but the cerebrum is not functioning, the patient can be declared to be brain dead. To determine if the cerebrum is functioning, doctors would analyze the responses of the patient to external stimuli, run an electroencephalogram, check for cephalic reflexes, and check respiration of the patient. Lamb states that the absence of spontaneous respiration and circulation is not a sign of death, which is determined only when the physician is satisfied that the brain has ceased to function (31). Testing for respiration and circulation are simply

The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life

The United Nations is widely regarded and respected as the most powerful institution that promotes international cooperation and human rights action. In theory, actions implemented by and within the United Nations are based on the mutual global goal of protecting international human rights and preventing human sufferings. These actions are constituted through three main mechanisms: the Treaty-based system, the Human Rights Council, and Security Council and Humanitarian Interventions, with the level of confrontation and seriousness in each mechanism increases respectively. While aimed to serve the mutual goal of protecting human rights over the world and have shown some successes, in a world of sovereignty, actions when implemented are in fact grounded by the national interests of each state, including embracing its national sovereignty, concreting its strategic relationships with other states, and enhancing its reputation in the international community. This paper will analyze the successes and failures of each of the three mechanisms of the United Nations regime, through which it aims to prove that when it comes to actions, states focus more on their national, and in some cases, regional interests than on the mutual goal of strengthening human rights throughout the world, thus diminishing the legitimacy of the whole United Nations system.