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Saving Lives

When our medical technology was crude we understood the event of death to be bodily collapse; if a person could not breathe or move and their heart did not beat they would be considered dead. In many such situations in the past, the available medicine could not help people live, even though the affliction that led to their collapse may be curable today.

Because we have more sophisticated medical technology and theory today, the criterion of Brain Death is now used to determine when treatment of the rest of the body remains an option. Patients are now routinely revived after lying "dead" on the operating table for hours, while their hearts or other vital organs are repaired or replaced. This is a clear illustration that death is not a sudden event; unless a person is blown to pieces, death is usually a slow process of deterioration which begins once available medicine has failed. The doctor who declares a patient dead because their heart and respiratory system can no longer keep the brain alive is also aware that the still-living organs inside the person can be removed, kept alive in cold storage, and transplanted into another person who is considered to have a chance of survival. This same doctor would have declared more patients dead sooner in earlier times (including the recipients of donation), when medical technology and understanding were more limited. This is still the case today in impoverished countries where modern medicine is often denied through lack of national resources or local limitations.

Clearly then, what is presently considered "complete" death takes longer than the failure of organs that support the survival of the brain. It is true that the brain quickly deteriorates once the flow of oxygenated blood is compromised (this is called "ischemia": the condition suffered by tissues and organs when they are deprived of adequate nutrients and oxygen carried in blood), but it is also true that the majority of bodily cells continue to function well for hours after (brain) death is officially declared. During this time the brain gradually or rapidly decomposes according to environmental conditions and the cause of death. Normally the rest of the body will either be left to decompose in its own way, or the organs are "harvested" and preserved for donation. But there is an alternative to decay and consequent, irreversible death.

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