Baby Daniel was pronounced "almost" brain dead, not by doctors (who would not use such a term among themselves) but by state bureaucrats. That often means they want to cut him up for his organs. Very profitable business.
"Almost" brain dead doesn't mean anything, medically. "Brain dead" doesn't really mean "dead," either. It means a comatose, unreflexive condition thought -- thought -- to be irreversible.
The tests for it are quite horrible. The patient is banged around brutally (people who have watched it tell me they cringed). The docs try to cause pain, put ice water in the ears, shine bright lights in the eyes and suchlike. (See this site for a detailed discussion, especially the warnings and pitfalls: Testing for death by brain criteria. ) The tests are to insure (as best we can) that the patient is utterly unresponsive in brain function. (For my two cents, the stricter the standards, the better.)
Note that one of the criteria is lack of brain-stem function, meaning that the patient cannot breathe unaided. A patient who can breathe is not "brain dead." Karen Ann Quinlan was not "brain dead." Neither is Sunny von Bulow, possibly the victim of attempted murder by insulin poisoning in a famous case in 1980, who is comatose but is still alive and lovingly tended all these years later.
In the end we don't really know. It is impossible to test a brain from the outside and find "mind" on the inside. Mind is and always has been a mystery. It is certainly possible that "brain dead" patients are aware of their surroundings. Occasionally one of them wakes up and says so. Perhaps such a person was a misdiagnosed case in the first place and the others are truly "mind dead." Perhaps not. We don't know.
"Your answer was the best we have: "I don't know." The instant brain scientists who think they DO know are a few bulbs short of a chandelier.
Baby Daniel was pronounced "almost" brain dead, not by doctors (who would not use such a term among themselves) but by state bureaucrats. That often means they want to cut him up for his organs. Very profitable business.
"Almost" brain dead doesn't mean anything, medically. "Brain dead" doesn't really mean "dead," either. It means a comatose, unreflexive condition thought -- thought -- to be irreversible.
The tests for it are quite horrible. The patient is banged around brutally (people who have watched it tell me they cringed). The docs try to cause pain, put ice water in the ears, shine bright lights in the eyes and suchlike. (See this site for a detailed discussion, especially the warnings and pitfalls: Testing for death by brain criteria. ) The tests are to insure (as best we can) that the patient is utterly unresponsive in brain function. (For my two cents, the stricter the standards, the better.)
Note that one of the criteria is lack of brain-stem function, meaning that the patient cannot breathe unaided. A patient who can breathe is not "brain dead." Karen Ann Quinlan was not "brain dead." Neither is Sunny von Bulow, possibly the victim of attempted murder by insulin poisoning in a famous case in 1980, who is comatose but is still alive and lovingly tended all these years later.
In the end we don't really know. It is impossible to test a brain from the outside and find "mind" on the inside. Mind is and always has been a mystery. It is certainly possible that "brain dead" patients are aware of their surroundings. Occasionally one of them wakes up and says so. Perhaps such a person was a misdiagnosed case in the first place and the others are truly "mind dead." Perhaps not. We don't know."
T'wit, your post is so informative, I have to bump it. You are so knowledgeable.
I cringed when I read how they test to see if a person is "brain dead."
At the very least, people need to question, question, just like Kate Adamson's husband did.
Quote from Kate Adamson on Bill O'Reilly's show: " I could hear, and see everything going on around me, and I had NO way to commmunicate with anyone."