Assassin X wrote:Even though i dont prove things to people because i am an honest person
Sometimes the comedy just writes itself, doesn't it?
The personal opinion of a blogger which counts for exactly jack and shit.
An article which cannot be accessed and therefore also counts for exactly jack and shit in this debate.
A whole list:
http://news.google.com/news?q=Schiavo+n ... n&oi=newsr
Vegitative state. Brain Dead = Death. Every article i read that says she is brain dead doesnt mention the fact that if your brain dead you tend to do this thing called DYING. 15 years and no death. Hmmm. Yes theres no chance of her waking up but i just want to correct the fact that you people still call her brain dead. Its not brain dead.
Hate to tell you this, but the issue isn't so clear-cut in the medical community or among bioethicists, as the excerpts from
this article on definitions of death points out:
THREE DEFINITIONS OF DEATH
There are three proposed definitions of human death: the Heart-Lung Definition, the Whole Brain Definition, and the Higher Brain Definition. The first, accepted for centuries by the medical community, is also known as the "Cardiopulmonary" definition. Here, a human is dead if and only if there is "irreversible cessation of the circulatory and respiratory functions" (Truog 24). On this definition, when breathing and heartbeat cease, life ceases. In the absence of respiration and circulation the brain quickly dies, as well. All functions of the organism quickly cease along with the death of the brain. On this definition, then, the dead human is very much like a dead organism of almost any kind; it lacks organization, metabolism, growth, development, and homeostatic mechanisms, in addition to lacking the hallmarks of human life, such as consciousness, thought, volition, and emotion.
The Heart-Lung definition was not seen as problematic until the late 1960's in the United States, when medical technologies expanded to include both the possibility of organ transplantation and the possibility of mechanical respiration and, hence, circulation. Problems that arose from these new capabilities were two-fold. First, it was now possible to keep human organisms "alive" using respirators and ventilators, where the heart and lungs were not capable of functioning spontaneously. Some people kept alive in these ways had damaged hearts and lungs, but not damaged brains. Therefore, to declare everyone dead who needed the assistance of a mechanical ventilator in order to have cardiopulmonary functioning would be to declare dead some humans with fully functioning brains. Conversely, some people kept alive in these ways had little or no brain functioning. Suddenly, it became necessary to distinguish those patients who were being kept alive artificially, at great expense throughout an organismic disintegration that could last as long as three months, from those who needed this intervention temporarily to regain the healthy use of their bodies. Second, it was now possible to transplant organs from a dead patient to a living patient, but transplantation could only take place under certain very particular circumstances. Having recently been part of the functioning system of a living, human organism dramatically increases the likelihood that an organ will function in the new system. If doctors and medical researchers wait for a patient's cardiopulmonary death, the organs may be deteriorated beyond their usefulness before they can be procured for transplantation.
At this point, a debate over what "death" means ensued. Is the life of a human being the life of the human organism, or is the life of a human being the life of a person (a conscious being)? Are we concerned about whether the patient from whom we are harvesting organs is biologically alive, or are we concerned about whether that patient is a life? These questions were debated for over a decade, with the result that two alternate definitions of "death" (and, thus, of "life") were created: Higher Brain Death, and Whole Brain Death.
Whole-Brain Death defines death as "The 'permanent cessation of functioning of the organism as a whole,' " and the criterion for death then becomes "The 'permanent cessation of functioning of the entire brain' " (Truong 25). Since the brain regulates and organizes the functioning of the organism as a whole, with no brain functions the process of dying is, at least, irreversibly begun. This definition of death, labeled "Brain Death," was accepted in the United States in 1980 (Ott 17). Later, protocols were established for determining when patients meet the criteria for brain death.
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The Whole Brain criterion for brain death represented a compromise view between those who saw the traditional Heart-Lung criterion as the only acceptable definition of death and those who argued that neo-cortical life is essential to human life. This later group argued that the life of a human is the life of a person, not the life of a biologically human organism. They favored the Higher Brain definition of death, in which a human is dead when there is an irreversible cessation of all neo-cortical functioning, functioning of the "higher" brain which supports consciousness. The compromise favoring the whole brain definition was reached, largely because it allowed for organs to be procured more readily and in better condition. Under the whole brain definition, a human is dead if there is: a) irreversible cessation of cardiopulmonary functioning OR b) irreversible cessation of the functioning of the whole brain. The brain dead will show no reactions to stimuli, no reflex responses, and no independent breathing, as well as no evidence of thought or consciousness. Without the declaration of death, a brain dead patient can be kept functioning at this minimal level for a maximum of three months before cardiac arrest.
OBJECTIONS TO BRAIN DEATH AS DEATH
Some of the continuing problems involve religious difficulties with defining death as brain death, rather than as cardio-pulmonary cessation. The Hebrew word "nephesh" and the Greek word "psyche" (pronounced "soo-kay") both have the dual meaning of "soul" and "breath." In Genesis, when the Hebrew God breathes life into his creation, Adam, this word "nephesh" is used simultaneously to mean that God gives Adam both breath and soul. Similarly, the ancient Greeks believed that the soul dissipates at death because the breath dissipates. Plato (427-347 BCE) argues against this commonly held view in the Phaedo. There is a very long and deeply held belief across many cultures, therefore, that connects respiration and the relation of the soul to the body. Japan only accepted Brain Death as death in 1997, for example.
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Other controversies arise from those who see problems with the Whole Brain definition of death. Even when the criteria for lack of brain functioning is fulfilled using the extensive protocols of most hospitals, there is evidence of some residual functioning of the brain in many Brain Dead patients. First, in some 20% of cases, a patient diagnosed as brain dead will not develop diabetes insipidus. This demonstrates that the patient has some neurologically controlled hormonal excretion, promoting "free-water homeostasis." Second, before a patient can be tested for brain death the protocols require that the patient not be hypothermic (a hypothermic human cannot be tested for brain death). However, the absence of hypothermia indicates that the patient has neurologically mediated temperature homeostasis, and therefore is not wholly brain dead. Third, 20% of those diagnosed with Brain Death show electrical activity on an electroencephalogram. Finally, doctors report that patients who fulfill the criteria for Brain Death using standard protocols frequently respond to surgical incision (for organ procurement) with significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure (Truog).
# There are signs of life in Brain Dead patients, albeit small. No one diagnosed with Brain Death has ever recovered consciousness. Those who point to continued electrical and hormonal activity in the Brain Dead are generally attempting to show that death is a process, rather than a moment. The Brain Dead are in a process of disorganization that is not yet complete. In fact, this is complicated by the fact that there have been advances in hormone replacement and similar substitutions for the functioning of the brain stem that indicate that brain stem functions are not at all irreplaceable. Currently, a Brain Dead human may be kept alive (in the cardiopulmonary sense) in order to gestate a baby to term, or to maintain an organ for later transplant, when the recipient is not readily available. As the replacement of the brain stem functions becomes increasingly possible, the question of whether brain stem function is essential to human life arises.
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There are two types of patients who exhibit Higher Brain Death who are not Brain Dead: Anencephalic infants and adults in a persistent (or permanent) vegetative state. Anencephaly is a condition in which an infant is born without a skull (cranium) and with a forebrain that is either absent or rudimentary and non-functional. These infants can live, using the functioning of their brain stems, from a few hours to a few months. They are kept warm and fed, but they have no chance of ever gaining consciousness.
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Someone who is in a Persistent (or Permanent) Vegetative State (PVS) is one whose neo-cortical functioning has been destroyed by disease or injury, so that she or he is in a "chronic state of wakefulness without awareness." Since the patient still has brain stem functioning respiration, digestion, reflex response, homeostatic mechanisms, circulation, and so forth all take place spontaneously. However, the patient has lost the ability to be conscious. The patient is incapable of consciously experiencing, although there are responses to stimuli. Someone with PVS can live many years, because the brain stem continues to support the life of the organism.
Terri Schiavo most certainly qualifies under the definition for Higher Brain Death. Her EEG is flat, there are no fluids flowing to what is now a nonexistent cerebral cortex, and there was partial damage to the brain stem in the event which resulted in her falling into the PVS state fifteen years ago.
And as for your persistent "cheating is cheating" babble, only a true pinhead is unable to accept the extant fact that Terri Schiavo ceased to be Terri Schiavo when her brain shut off and subsequently deterioriated to jello. The plain and simple fact is that despite the continued functioning of a breathing corpse,
there is no more "Terri Schiavo". The actual person is gone and has been for fifteen years.
