Over the past few years, highly publicized lawsuits have stirred skepticism among advocates and family members of those who have been declared brain dead. Some reject brain death on religious grounds, while others hold out hope for recovery. https://t.co/SIPMh8hB8F
— Undark Magazine (@undarkmag) May 13, 2021
Once upon a time, when a person's brain, lungs, or heart stopped working, they died, because all the other body functions depend on each of those three. But in the 20th century, we developed machines to work for the lungs, and then more advanced machines to keep blood circulating when a heart stops. That only leaves the brain, and so we developed the concept of brain death. The problem with brain death is that it may be interpreted differently by doctors, scientists, family members, religions, and states, where the definition of legal death is very important.
There was no consistency among the states, however, and by the late 1970s, policymakers recognized that the nation needed a uniform definition of death. In 1981, a presidential commission proposed the Uniform Determination of Death Act, which says a person is considered legally dead when their breathing and circulation have irreversibly stopped or when their entire brain has irreversibly stopped functioning.
The Uniform Determination of Death Act is not a federal law but rather a model statute recommended for each state to adopt. Today, every state recognizes brain death, yet the issue is far from settled. For one thing, only about two-thirds of states adopted the complete language of the act. Beyond that, state-level court decisions and legislation have created a patchwork of rules, so that brain-death examinations are handled differently in different states. The result is that the fundamental concept of death depends upon where a person is located. Some states allow family members to opt out of having a brain-death examination performed on a loved one, regardless of the person’s neurological status. Moreover, in New Jersey — but only New Jersey — a person who has been determined to be brain dead cannot be declared legally dead without the family’s consent.
“The line between life and death needs to be bright and clear and sharp, and unfortunately, it’s now a little bit gray and a little bit fuzzy,” Pope said. “We need, as some might say, to build a wall between life and death.”
Finding the right spot to build that wall is difficult. For any definition of brain death, there are edge cases that push the boundaries of the guidelines in use. Read about the history and science of defining brain death at Undark. -via Damn Interesting