Learn new definitions of death

Recent research by scientists has shown that people who are living without performing the function of the brain (also known as plant life) are dead, and those when the heart and respiratory system stop working while the brain can still recover but not yet dead.

This is evidenced by the strange circumstances that seem impossible in the world as in the case of a mother giving birth when diagnosed with 'clinical death' , an athlete slipping into the water freezing throughout Many hours have been relived in a state of no brain damage.

According to the explanation of scientists, the above cases show that sometimes the boundary between life and death seems very faint. That proves that distinguishing is the case of the resurrection from the dead is not simple. However, with the advent of the so-called "artificial ventilation" (artificial ventilator) , a clear conception of death is now seen differently than clinical definitions.

However, according to experts, it is not clear whether the concept of 'brain death' and 'cyclical death' can create ambiguity about the dead and those who are not yet dead.

What is death?

Although used frequently, the term "clinical death" does not really have a consistent meaning, said Dr. James Bernat, a neurologist at Dartmouth Geisel Medical University in New Hampshire. In the past, in most hospitals, doctors in charge of patient care tested death and often did not have extensive guidelines when declaring life and death. 'You will die when a doctor says you are dead,' said Dr. Bernat on the science page Livescience on June 19.

The vague boundary between life and death

By the 1950s, the new death was defined as the time when any of the important functions were heart rate, electroencephalic or respiratory activity was no longer active. Each component of this system stops working will lead to other components stop following and lead to death.

However, according to Bernat, with the introduction of artificial ventilation techniques , in which pushing air in and out of the lungs, a new category is called 'brain death'. Artificial ventilation can help warm people and blood circulation, can even fight infection, but when brain dies, they have absolutely no brain function, Leslie Whetstine, a philosopher at the Great Study Walsh in Ohio, who specializes in the study of definitions of death.

A person is declared brain dead, when he or she cannot recover all parts of the brain. That will be announced by doctors after taking neurological tests to search for brain activity, or blood circulation to the brain, as well as an experiment to see if the patient can or not when Turn off the breathing machine.

Circulatory death

Doctors can also declare the dead if the person's heart stops beating and cannot work again. However, the heart can sometimes be restored after it has stopped beating. That poses a problem so long as the heart stops beating, it is considered that the person died.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can revive people for several minutes after their heart stops, but usually there is no sustained brain damage. So doctors can perform CPR for at least 38 minutes, according to a 2013 study presented at the American Heart Association meeting found.

However, sometimes a doctor has issued a death certificate to the patient even before the prescribed time. Sometimes artificial respiration is also done not long enough. According to Dr. Bernat, that is why the number of patients recovered after being thought to have increased.

Confusion about concept

The decision to decide whether someone has died or will require a doctor to have the option to intervene or stop the cure. This situation has given rise to a number of cases that may create much controversy.

The real death must be brain death?

For example, a person may have been taken to a hospital and placed on the list of organ donors when they die when their heart has stopped beating. But what is controversial is whether they actually died at that time, Dr. Bernat said.

The problem is, the distinction between brain death and circulatory death is ambiguous, Whetstine expert said: 'What we care most about the brain is the fact that it is the support agency for awareness. So death should be defined as the irreversible loss of consciousness, ' Whetstine told Livescience on June 19.

According to Whetstine's concept, even though a person with a cardiac arrest or a dead brain is granted a death certificate, that does not mean two types of death. Issuing death certificates is only given when someone has brain death. Thus the 'living plants ' can also be considered 'dead'.