The medical diagnosis of brain death is at odds with our traditional view of when death actually occurs, says a leading academic speaking at an international conference on Death, dying & disposal in Bath today (Wednesday 12 September 2007).
Whilst a diagnosis of brain death is made using factors including fixed and dilated pupils, lack of eye movement, absence of respiratory reflexes, the social understanding of death is that it occurs when the heart stops beating.
This makes decisions that often follow brain death, such as organ removal and the cessation of life support, potentially unsettling for the bereaved, says Professor Allan Kellehear from the Centre for Death & Society at the University of Bath.
He is calling for organ removal and cessation of life support to become social decisions, rather than purely medical ones, and for more research to be carried out into the social impact of brain death and its implications.
“Forty years ago, being dead used to be very simple - it was the point at which your heart stopped beating,” said Professor Kellehear.
“Now death itself has been complicated by the fact that we can keep alive people who are brain dead almost indefinitely.
“Brain death is the point at which doctors can switch off machines or begin harvesting organs, but, to relatives, being brain dead is not the same as being a corpse.
“Corpses are not warm, they are not pink, they do not move, they are not pregnant – but a person who is brain dead can be all of these things.