Brain Death And Neurological Criteria By Matthew Hanley

Due to a lack of knowledge on what brain death actually is, there have been issues that arise such as whether or not it should be used as a way to determine death. According to NHS, “Brain death (also known as brain stem death) is when a person on an artificial life support machine no longer has any brain functions.” Due to the lack of any brain activity, determined through a set of tests, it is understood that the person has experienced death due to the fact that without the life support being provided they would be dead according to the traditional definition of death. The traditional definition of death is when there is “irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions'' (Sarbey). Even though someone is brain dead and technically

He approaches the argument on brain death from the complete opposite view of Brugger. Hanley says that, “Nowadays all other vital organs can be replaced, but there is no way to overcome the total, irreversible loss of all brain function…The irreversible loss of all critical brain function is the only condition that is both necessary and sufficient to establish death.” Hanley points out that brain death is something that can be tested, and when brain death occurs there is absolutely no possibility for that person to keep themselves alive anymore without any kind of assistance. The key difference between this argument and Brugger’s is that Hanley says brain death is something that can be measured and is a concrete death rather than something like a heartbeat that can be kept using machines or just an entirely new heart from a donor. Hanley brings up morality and ethics in his article on brain death and says that, “when a person unambiguously meets the criteria for brain death, we can say with moral certainty that the person has died. And a moral or prudential standard of certainty, rather than absolute certainty is the appropriate standard because it allows for conscientious decision-making based on the available knowledge, even amidst any conceivably remaining ambiguities.” (Hanley). Hanley’s argument for brain death being used to determine death is more convincing to me than Brugger’s because contrary to beliefs brain death is something that can be tested for and proves actual death. I find it strange that someone would try to say someone is alive when they are on life support with no brain activity because if it was not for the life support they would be