definition of death

O

orcot

Valued Senior Member
What's the definition of death?

It used to be as simple as the moment when the heart stopt beating, but with today's technology that doesn't sounds to accuratly.

What is by defenition death (meaning can not come back to life and be the same person).

And how do you think it will evolve with science?
 
i read a book about this recently, but cant quite remember the name "psychology of death" i think. personally i would say that my brain without oxygen for more than 3 minutes, or being in a coma for more than 3 months would be the cutoff point i would tell my next of kin, those seem to be points where if i was to recover my brain damage would make me a totally new person, so technically 'I' am already dead.
 
What's the definition of death?
Click to expand...

The total and permanent loss of all brain function; a medical and legal determination of death.
www.organtransplants.org/glossary.html

A legal condition of death in which a person’s brain is no longer functioning. A person may be declared brain-dead even though his or her heart ...
www.enotes.com/biomedical-ethics-article/glossary

an irreversible cessation of measurable brain function.
www.weitzlux.com/traumaticbraininjury_672.html

The absence of electrical activity in the brain, as measured by an electroencephalograph.
www.womensheartfoundation.org/content/Help/glossary.asp

Death resulting from total, irreversible loss of all brain functions. Brain death occurs in patients who have suffered severe trauma or injury to the brain. As a result of the trauma or injury, the brain swells and obstructs its own blood supply. Without blood flow, all brain tissue dies. ...
www.iopo.org/donation/glossary.php

when the brain has permanently stopped working, as determined by a neurological surgeon, artificial support systems may maintain functions such as ...
www.surgery.usc.edu/divisions/hep/patientguide/glossary.html

Death caused by complete and irreversible loss of function of the entire brain, including the brain stem. ...
www.csmc.edu/10170.html

Absence of brain and brain stem activity indicating death of all brain tissue. Diagnosis of brain death may be made by bedside examination and ...
lomalindahealth.org/services/heart-institute/resources/glossary.html
 
orcot said:
What's the definition of death?

It used to be as simple as the moment when the heart stopt beating, but with today's technology that doesn't sounds to accuratly.

What is by defenition death (meaning can not come back to life and be the same person).

And how do you think it will evolve with science?
Click to expand...


There is not one death but as many deaths as there are living things.

Just like every birth is unique every death is unique too.

There is no identifiable cause of death.
 
brain is a connection to the physical world for us, when the connections ceases to function, it ceases to be...and so is the connection of us to the physical world.​

A%20Forest%20of%20Neurons_s.bmp
 
draqon said:
brain is a connection to the physical world for us, when the connections ceases to function, it ceases to be...and so is the connection of us to the physical world.
Click to expand...


In traditional Western philosophy we are connected to the physical world through our senses.
 
There is no life, so there is no death. Or you could say everything is living, or everything is dead.
 
orcot said:
Any ID what the definition of death for plant life (who have no brains) would be?
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That's not so easy. Ultimately the definition of death is "the cessation of life." For an animal with a brain, brain function is so clearly the essence of its life that we can easily define the death of a vertebrate as the irreversible degradation of the synapses. We just don't care if, for example, the body can continue to move by reflex action for a while until it finally goes too far into oxygen debt: By our standards, that's not living.

So it isn't just plants for which death requires a different sort of definition, but all the lower animals who don't have brains and anything resembling consciousness. If we encounter one in a state of dormancy--either a lower animal or a plant--how can we be sure its metabolic processes will resume once the proper conditions return? How can we distinguish dormancy from death? Do we have to wait for decay or physical destruction before we can be positive that a bacterium, weed or fungus is dead?
 
i read a book about this recently, but cant quite remember the name "psychology of death" i think. personally i would say that my brain without oxygen for more than 3 minutes, or being in a coma for more than 3 months would be the cutoff point i would tell my next of kin, those seem to be points where if i was to recover my brain damage would make me a totally new person, so technically 'I' am already dead.
Click to expand...

What about people who awake from comas after many years?
 
On the cellular level it is fairly easy. Once the membrane potential is gone, so is the cell.
 
orcot said:
What's the definition of death?

It used to be as simple as the moment when the heart stopt beating, but with today's technology that doesn't sounds to accuratly.

What is by defenition death (meaning can not come back to life and be the same person).

And how do you think it will evolve with science?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it used to be when your heart stops beating, but now the medical community has changed it to when the brain stops functioning. Braindead is the new definition of dead.
 
actually its not BRAIN death at all. Cosmic your definitions are missing one vital word

Death (legal and medical) is defined as "The irriversable cessation of brain STEM activity or funtion". It has NOTHING to do with the ceribral cortex

Its a clinical diognosis (as oposed to one done with the use of teritiary tests like MRI's)

I dont have my clincial prac book to hand so i am going to have to relie on someone elses work rather than my own:p

The first thing to establish is that there are no organic or pharmalogical causes that could induce the absance of reaction, for instance is the person on anasetics which would depress reflexes or is there an infection which is interfering in nerotransmission, or hypothermia.

once established there are 7 tests to be carried out

the tests for brain stem death are:
  • 1 pupillary reaction to light
    Pen light is shone into the eyes to check if the pupils contract
  • 2 Blink reflex
    a piece of cotton wool is scraped across the cornia to check if the pt reacts to an irritation of the eye by blinking
  • 3 Facial nerves
    painful pressure is aplied to the nerves running through the cheek to see if the pt grimaces
  • 4 Turning the head
    With the eyes held open the pts head is twisted from side to side to see if the eyes move, i honestly forget the reaction that is surposed to be observed in this but i THINK it is that the pts eyes will follow the roof (ie roll up as the head is tilted down) if the pt is in a coma
  • 5 Eye movement from ice water
    again with the eyes held open ice water is injected into the ear. In a coma pt this will ilicit a similar eye movement to the one seen above
  • 6 Gag reflex
    A tube is put down the pts throat to illicit a gag reflex. Though some people can overcome this reflex concious, a coma pt cant and will show signs of coughing or chocking. Oviously a dead person has no reaction
  • 7 Spontanious breathing
    The pt is well ventalated for a few min to make sure the body is well surplied with oxygen and then disconected. A coma pt will show signs of the body reacting to the build up of CO2 and try to breath on there own. A dead person will show no reaction to the build up of CO2. To make sure the levels are correct blood gasses maybe taken before and during this test to be 100% sure that the body is well oxygenated and that the CO2 is building up

These tests are done on both sides of the body were apropriate to rule out any injury to those paticular nerves and the test is repeated after about 10 min from memory.

You are wrong that the change from clinical death (cardiovascular failure) to brain stem death was because of moden tech. It actually has nothing to do with it. In situations like a heart atack for instance CLINCIAL death is still used to determine death (30 min of unresolved pulseless Ventricular Tachicardia or 5 min of Ventricular Asistolyie). The change was to do with organ transplantation, medical staff needed a way to determine if a pt was dead in order to do a beating heart transplant. The main thing is that if a pt is going to be an organ donor, the heart lung machine is NEVER turned off untill the pts organs have been removed. This gives a better viability to organs like the heart which require constant perfusion
 
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