2008-10-09 12:28:00.106121+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments
The Economist: Oh death, when is thy sting?. In 1968 a committee at the Harvard Medical School defined death by cessation of activity in the brain. This is a quick little article about why we might want to re-think that.
[ related topics: Biology ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2008-10-09 12:44:40.389148+00 by: Larry Burton
Interesting that this article is in The Economist seeing as how much of the financial sector seems to have been brain dead for the past ten years.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-10-09 13:36:39.901952+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]
I think it's appropriate, medical technology is increasing to the point where death is going to have to become an economic decision rather than a biological one. If we can pump oxygenated blood to a brain indefinitely, it's just a matter of how many pumps we can afford to keep running...
(Of course, if we can pump oxygenated blood to a brain indefinitely, why aren't we helping out our politicians by doing so for those in office...)
#Comment Re: made: 2008-10-09 16:48:47.044388+00 by: JT
Well, in a friend's (catholic) perception of life, it begins at conception. A brain isn't formed for quite some time, so therefore in some people's eyes, a brain has nothing to do with life. Maybe ,for the catholics, we should develop a soul detector, when a soul leaves the body, that person can be considered dead. Of course, this doesn't leave much leeway for the soulless politicians and lawyers ever-present in our modern society...
#Comment Re: made: 2008-10-09 18:26:20.788641+00 by: markd
maybe we can adapt the scientologist E-Meter.