[yankeedame]

Now that a prominent medical journal has come out and stated that brain death and cardiac death are invalid criteria for true death, some are hoping....

Au contraire,

• So a "prominent medical journal" has printed a submitted article that stated "brain death and cardiac death are invalid criteria for true death". With all due respect bit...so what? This act of publication doesn't mean the NEJM agrees/supports/endorses of that particular. While individual members of the editorial board may or may not agree with the article, the medical journal itself does not. NEJM prints a lot of articles from a lot of doctors. That's its business. This article was one of them, nothing more and nothing less.IOW, this article is the printed words of a writer expressing an opinion or conjecture.

• Question: If "...brain death and cardiac death are invalid criteria for true death" than pray tell what is?

[antiRepublicrat]

Question: If "...brain death and cardiac death are invalid criteria for true death" than pray tell what is?

Death is a process, not an event. It makes things difficult as we try to decide what point in that process constitutes death.