Nothing Is Certain Except for Death and Taxes

Benjamin Franklin said nothing in this world can be certain except death and taxes. We might debate Franklin about taxes (some people seem to get away with everything), but all agree that we will one day die. Sooner or later, no matter how healthy we have been, we will die.

There is less certainty when we try to define death. The definition of death has become increasingly hazy. Initially, a person was considered dead when they stopped breathing. Even cavemen could detect when this occurred. Then death took on a religious significance, and priests used to declare a person dead. When in doubt, they looked for signs of putrefaction. Then, with the advent of modern medicine, the new definition of death became when the heart stopped. Brain death became the method of choice in the 1960’s. This method was considered fool proof for several decades. When the brain and brainstem stop functioning, the rest of your body quickly dies also.

But no, it doesn’t rest there, as the definition of when the brain stops functioning is defined differently by almost every neurological hospital in the nation. Our entire society seemed to be involved with this ambiguity when Terry Schiavo was defined as in a persistent vegetative state. Was she dead? Was she alive, even though unaware?
With advances in technology, people who would have been considered brain dead in the past, are no longer declared as having left the land of the living, as newer machines can detect fainter signs of brain life.

Progress in nanotechnology and stem cell research may enable us to completely repair any portions of the brain which may be dead. How then will we define death? Scientific advances are making the definition of death increasingly difficult; and our ability to rebuild destroyed brains may eventually force us to develop a brand new definition of death, based not on brain activity but on personal identity: would you be the same person if your entire brain, including all your memories and personality, were destroyed and then grown anew?

Sources

International Association of Bioethics
http://www.changesurfer.com/BD/2008/index2.htm

New Scientist, October, 2007
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/death/dn12759