Human Being Should Be Classified As Dead

On November 22 of this year, I witnessed firsthand my grandfather’s birth to eternal life. After a fall knocked James Berka unconscious, emergency responders arrived; my grandpa had been oxygen deprived for only a few short minutes but was ultimately declared brain dead. As my family and I spent our final moments with him before he would be removed from life support, many tears were shed. However, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief and closure for my grandpa. As he lay in the hospital bed totally oblivious to life, he was immune to the side effects of Parkinson’s, a disease he had battled for many years towards the end of his life. At that moment, my grandpa was not swaying uncontrollably nor struggling to articulate a single sentence.

Karen Ann Quinlan was out with her friends on April 14, 1975. Near the end of the night at the party, she consumed large amounts of alcohol and the sedative Valium. This caused her to go into a coma. Karen stayed in the coma for 1 year, until her doctor told her family she was in a ‘vegetative state’, meaning she was brain dead. Her parents had wanted to end her suffering, so they asked for Karen to be taken off life support. The doctors refused them so the Quinlan family took the case to court. At first, the judge had refused to let this happen as the doctors opposed disconnecting the respirator. Stating that it violated the state’s homicide laws. A week later, the Quinlans took this case to the New Jersey Supreme Court, of whom ruled that it was unusual punishment. But ultimately, the Supreme Court, based upon the right to privacy, ruled that Karen was permitted to be taken off. But when she was taken off, she continued breathing. This could be from the cerebellum, which is the primitive brain and it controls involuntary functions such

After declaring Jahi McMath brain dead, the doctors at the Children’s Hospital ordered her to be taken off mechanical ventilation. Her mother, Latasha Winkfield, refused to accept that her daughter was dead and incapable of recovering (du Toit & Miller, 2016). Winkfield believed her daughter was still alive because McMath was breathing and her heart was still beating (du Toit & Miller, 2016). McMath’s family disagreed with the doctors’ report and filed a lawsuit to prevent life support from being discontinued (Paola, 2014).

The thin line between life and death has become an ethical issue many health care providers and the government have long tried to ignore. The understanding that life begins at birth, and ends when the heartbeat and breathing have ceased has long been deemed factual. Medical technologies have changed this with respirators, artificial defibrillators, and transplants (Macionis, 2009). “Thus medical and legal experts in the United States define death as an irreversible state involving no response to stimulation, no movement or breathing, no reflexes, and no indication of brain activity” (Macionis, 2009, p. 436).

On July 3, 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio, Sam and Marilyn Sheppard were entertaining guests at their house.1-4 Sam had spent most of his day in surgery at the osteopathic medicine hospital his family owned.1 When Sam got off work he headed to the Ahern’s house, their neighbors, and picked up Marilyn and Chip, Sam’s son.1 The Adhern’s, including their children, followed Sam back to his home were they made dinner and then watched TV in the living room.1,2 After participating in the chit chat of the evening, Sam became tried and laid down on a couch in the living room and quickly fell asleep.1 He remembers Marilyn trying to arouse him to say she was going upstairs to go to bed.1 Several hours later, Sam was awoken to a scream, he jumped up from the couch, ran upstairs and entered the bedroom. Suddenly, Sam was struck from behind.1,2

“One of the obligations for nursing staff and everyone is to take care of the dead body whose perfused organs are being maintained by machines”, a panelist interjected. Many hospitals have policies whereby if one is hired by the hospital and has a personal, moral, or religious objection to certain things, then every effort will be made for someone else to participate – termination of pregnancy serves as an example, he continued. Furthermore, he emphasized that there does not have to be a conscientious objection on the part of the doctors or nurses based on spiritual, philosophical, or religious grounds; it’s solely based on not being required to give treatments that one believes are futile. As another member put it succinctly, “You can recuse yourself from performing such duties”. Moreover, the idea of futility is a vague idea, mentioned a panelist; he stressed that in this particular instance, regarding the woman’s brain-death state, this is totally futile. The whole idea behind a religious exemption is, as he put it: “You are not dead based on spiritual grounds. The family believes that it is not actual death – it is not cardiopulmonary death”. In addition, the doctor emphasized that many health practitioners also hold the same religious ideals and would conclude that the person is not dead.

Gorman’s article shared the stories of two people who experienced such marvels and believe that recovery could happen to a significant number of people, thus “terminal” should be viewed with skepticism. Michael Gill holds that the assisted suicide laws also ensure that the patient has less than six months to live because it requires two physicians to verify the condition of the patient (Timmons, 2007, pg. 367). Gill’s argument does not consider the fact that bodies can miraculously heal themselves. Because of the reasons discussed above, allowing physician assisted suicide for the “terminally ill” is

A patient is lying on a hospital bed hooked up to several machines regulating his bodily functions. The doctor has informed the family that the patient is brain dead. His spouse makes the decision to pull the plug but his mother argues against it. It is the mothers opinion that her son is still alive, and deserves to be treated like a person, even though his brain is no longer functioning. The spouse holds the opinion that any trace of her loved one has left with the death of his brain and only his body remains. Suddenly, both remember the patients wishes to not be sustained on life support, and they collectively decide to pull the plug. This example illustrates the central debate

Jahi McMath a 13-year old Oakland girl is declared brain dead after complications during surgery to remove her tonsils, adenoids and uvula. The family has gained a court order to keep the child on a ventilator and removed her to an undisclosed care facility, her mother posted on face book status that she is doing much better physically now that she is away from the former hospital. Medical experts state that her body will continually decline.

On April 15, 1975, Karen Ann Quinlan, unexpectedly fell to the ground, unconscious, and then slipped into a coma. The doctors could do nothing about her unhealthy state and after a long year Karen’s family decide that they should remove her feeding tubes, a breathing mechanical device, and medical help. The doctors refused to do this because they would get arrested without court permission thus sending the family to court. The family fought over it at court and finally won. Surprisingly, Karen did not die but 10 years later she passed away naturally. The fact that she survived led to many acts of controversy. Was it a good idea to let Karen ann go or should they have kept her on the machines to see what would happen? Through evidence and research,

A position of simply defining death as the permanent loss of consciousness was a potential position, which was then refuted. How can one be completely sure of true loss of consciousness? Singer replies to this case by referencing Dr. Margaret de Campo, and the new technologies

Physical aspects of people who are died on motor vehicle crass, research is revealing that inflammation plays critical and complex roles fallowing injury, and it is linked too much life threatening complication. Genomic studies are showing that severe injury alters the activity levels of a large number of genes. Dying people with this injury lead to "brain death" means that a person's brain is not working and can never work again. When people is approaching of the end of life; therefore, the oxygen is no longer work, means the blood is stop flowing to the brain, and the brain cells are died. Doctor can determine brain death, or declare a person brain dead,; by examining the following such as electrical activity.

In reality, once someone is clinically dead, there is no blood pressure, the heart is asystole, and there is no brain function. Without oxygen, the body’s cells start to die and the bodily systems fail.

In many people’s opinion, Nancy Cruzan was dead long before she “died.” Like many medical issues, declaring someone as dead comes with ethical, moral, political, and emotional factors, leading family members to question decisions or argue with themselves or others. One major aspect of this conflict is the fact that the patient is not able to make this decision for themselves at the point when it is necessary. Many people now write living wills expressing their wishes for their treatment in the case that this decision is needed. When a living will is not present, however, families and doctors, and, in the case of Nancy Cruzan, politics, have to decide.

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