Health · Public Health & Disease · 3 hrs ago
Technology has changed how doctors define death
Medical technology changed how death is defined as machines became able to support breathing and circulation.
In the past, death was commonly identified when the heart stopped beating and the lungs stopped working, a state now called clinical death.
The World Health Organization defined death in 2012 as the permanent and irreversible loss of consciousness and all brainstem functions.
The body’s cells do not all stop at once when circulation ends.
Some brain cells begin to conserve energy after about 30 seconds without oxygen, irreversible brain damage begins after about five minutes, and some cells can remain active much longer.
A dying patient’s brain activity was recorded during an electroencephalogram, with patterns resembling those seen in dreaming or recalling memories, but this is not proof of what happens after death.
Advances in technology have changed how death is defined, as ventilators can sustain people who would otherwise die when their heart and breathing stop.
Since the 1950s, the concept of brain death has been developed.
The World Health Organization defined death in 2012 as the permanent and irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness and all brainstem functions.
Death is not a precise instant, because different cells stop functioning at different times.
An electroencephalogram recorded brain activity as an 87-year-old patient died, but the report says this is not scientific proof of the experience of dying.
- Who
- The World Health Organization defined death; the article discusses how technology affects the definition.
- What
- Technological advances have led to a shift from defining death by stopped heartbeat and breathing to the concept of brain death.
- When
- The change began with ventilator advances in the 1950s. The WHO issued its definition in 2012.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- Ventilators can maintain people who would not survive without assistance, making the earlier definition based on stopped heartbeat and breathing insufficient.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Artificial ventilators became advanced enough to keep alive people who would not survive without assistance.
The World Health Organization officially defined death in terms of permanent and irreversible loss of consciousness capacity and all brainstem functions.
An 87-year-old patient died while undergoing an electroencephalogram, allowing brain activity at the time of death to be recorded.
- Technology
- Ventilators have been sufficiently advanced since the 1950s to sustain some people who would otherwise die.
- Definition
- The WHO issued its definition of death in 2012.
- Cell damage
- The article says irreversible brain damage occurs after five minutes without blood circulation.
- Cell survival
- Some muscle cells can remain alive for up to 17 days after the heart stops.
What people are saying
the permanent and irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness and all brainstem functions