Is Mind Over Matter? Essay

viii. Brain Death must be established- person must cease having neurons firing in the neuro system

This poses a challenge for the neocortical view, but has the potential to be remedied. "It may be objected that, in ordinary language, it makes sense to say of someone that he is irreversibly comatose but still alive. This must be admitted. … Do we value "life" even if unconscious, or do we value life only as a vehicle for consciousness? Our attitude to the doctrine of the sanctity of life very much depends on our answer to this question." (Glover, The Philosophy of Death, pg. 349) Is this a life worth living just for the sake of it? Glover points out that it is dangerous to separate lives into "worth living" and "not worth living", however, it appears as though society has reached a point at which this very distinction is being made in certain cases. Cases for euthanasia argue that an individual's suffering is capable of escalating to the point that death would be preferable over further pain and/or deterioration; examples include individuals who suffer severely from ALS, Huntington's Disease, various forms of cancer, etc. Although an individual who has experience neocortical brain death does not feel constant pain as a direct consequence of upper brain death, the process of sustaining the body is incredibly harsh and painful. This pain increases exponentially if said patient has opted to forgo any extraordinary measures and must be left to die of their own accord. Even with medical intervention the patient is at increased risk of contractors (which cause the hands and feet to curl and lose function), tissue breakdown, bed sores, sepsis, shock, bloodlust and many other afflictions that would eventually lead to death. For this reason, it seems clear that the value of being alive is not worth allowing the persistence of unconscious and, consequentially, a painful

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

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).

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)

The Synopsis: Star Trek Episode “The Measure of a Man” deals with the thought that android could have physical and mental properties. In order to fully understand or evaluate this we have to have a clear understanding of the Mind/Body Problems and solutions. Humans are material objects consisting of physical and mental properties. Physical properties examples are height, weight, color, shape or size and mental properties are awareness, consciousness, feeling, thinking, emotions and senses. The problem arises because these properties interact where intentional or unintentional continuously. Hasker discusses several mind/body solutions such as idealism, materialism, behaviorism, dualism, and

“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.

For many years, medical assisted death has been disagreed upon with the Canadian Quebec legislation, Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care. Terminal ill patients have been fighting rights with their incurable conditions which caused them unbearable suffering. In many situations, death is always unacceptable since life was given for a reason. We all must pass away one day, although for some individuals, death can be measured by time due to tragic news that they have been informed about. In means of measuring time, we would all like to know when and how our death would be given. “Living is not good, but living is well. The wise man, therefore, lives as well as he should, not as long as he can...He will always think of life in terms of quality not quantity…Dying early or late is of no relevance, dying well or ill is…life is not to be bought at any cost. – The Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 B.C.- 69 A.D).” (Shneidman, 2001, p. 5). Sue Rodriguez, who was an advocate for medical assisted death, fought for legal rights in 1993. She was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1991. In a video to the Parliament, she poured her heart out. “If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?” (CBC Radio-Canada, 1993). She lost the battle against Supreme Court Canada to legalize assisted death under the Criminal Code of Canada. In 1994, Rodriguez was given a “constitutional exemption” which allowed assisted death under many conditions. In

The need for organ donations creates another ethical dilemma for Emergency Room Physicians. “Obtaining organs from emergency room patients has long been considered off-limits in the United States because of ethical and logistical concerns” (Stein, 2010). The shortage of organs available for transplant has caused many patients die while waiting. A pilot project from the federal government “has begun promoting an alternative that involves surgeons taking organs, within minutes, from patients whose hearts have stopped beating but who have not been declared brain-dead” (Stein, 2010). “The Uniform Determination of Death Act

The mind-body problem, which is still debated even today, raises the question about the relationship between the mind and the body. Theorists, such as René Descartes and Thomas Nagel, have written extensively on the problem but they have many dissenting beliefs. Descartes, a dualist, contends that the mind and body are two different substances that can exist separately. Conversely, Nagel, a dual aspect theorist, contends that the mind and body are not substances but different properties. However, although Nagel illustrates the problems with Descartes= theory, Nagel=s theory runs into the problem of panpsychism. In this paper, both arguments will be discussed to determine which, if either, side is stronger.

Our topic is on organ transplant. We will focus on the process and ethical dilemmas surrounding it. Our group chose this topic because we care and understand that this can happen to our love ones. We want to raise our concern about this worldwide issue, and where the black market for organs come into play. The stakeholders include the people (donors or receivers), doctors, government, businesses, and experts. We will be focusing on the culture and the ethical issues that related to organ transplant, conflict of interests, ethics in the design phases, debt/ financing, and regulation. Since our topic is quite detailed, we will start with what is the precise definition of “brain death” in a heart beating body that is kept

Describe what evolutionary psychologists mean when they employ the term ‘theory of mind’. Use examples and research studies from Book 1, Chapter 2 to show why this theory is important in evolutionary psychology.

The mind–body connection examines the relationship between mind and matter, and in particular the relationship between consciousness and the brain. Many throughout history have often wondered what causes the connection between the mental portion of the mind and the physical state of the body. A variety of different topics have been proposed. Most fall under either the dualist or monist theories. Many philosophers have debated their theories on the mind-body connection to include such philosophers as Descartes and Plato. More recent researchers have moved beyond the dualist

Some would choose to declare that every human being is both a body and a mind. Both being gelled together until death, than having the mind go on to exist and the body being lifeless. A person lives throughout two collateral histories, one having to do with what happens to the body and in it, and the other being what happens in and to the mind. What happens to the body is public and what happens to the mind is private. The events which reply to the body consist of the physical world, and the events of the mind consist of the mental world.

The stability of the mind is uncertain in the medical field. Even though researches about how the mind works has helped us developed a better understanding about the human mind and its behavior, they have failed to give us a complete and knowledgeable concrete answer to all the questions of its deep studies. The human mind is still a very abroad subject to medicine. What makes a mind stable and what triggers mental illnesses is a question that will still be unknown to the medical field for more years to come. The understanding of the mind is a quest that has started since the beginning of human civilization and it has not stopped. The mind is an organ of its own, and it develops its own unique style of evolution through time. It is a very small organ that is responsible for the function of the human body. All our functions come from there, the way we speak, think and behave. As all other organs, it also has its own illnesses that for many centuries we have tried to understand. The illness of the mind still has no cure and what science has found only contributes to the temporary solution, but not the cure of the illness. One of the most severe forms of mental illness is Schizophrenia. This illness has tormented people since the beginning of history. Schizophrenia, the illness that is still very mysterious to medicine; the symptoms, the cause, diagnosis, types of schizophrenia and the medication are not the solutions for a lasting illness.