Posted on 07/03/2022 10:52:14 AM PDT by plain talk
It was March 10, 2022—day one of a virtual forum held over Zoom to re-write the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), a draft law that for four decades has been the basis for defining who is alive and who is dead in the United States. Many of those assembled were legal professionals who are members of the Uniform Law Commission, a quasi-governmental entity whose origins go back 125 years. It’s a crowded meeting of five dozen guests from both the legal and medical realms.
When drafting legislation, vocabulary counts for everything. Opposing viewpoints were passionately aired over seemingly minute details. Within this group, there were two sides: One believes that death is best described as permanent, and the other believes death is irreversible. The distinction is subtle, but critical. Fans of the latter definition argue that describing death as “permanent” doesn’t go far enough—death is only permanent if no medical action is taken, but irreversible means that nothing can be done.
In the Zoom call’s chat, Robert Truog, the director of Harvard’s Center for Bioethics and a practicing clinician in pediatric intensive care, had a bone to pick: He wanted to know if the others believed that “whole brain death”—where both the brain stem and the cerebrum are no longer functioning—equated to biological death.
He pointed to the case of a 4-year-old boy who was kept on life support for 20 years. Over the years, he underwent a stunted form of puberty, despite a subsequent autopsy showing his brain had long since calcified. ... it’s the case that best makes a point he has spent a career hammering home: Human beings do not need a brain to live.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I hope it alters the 2020 elections.
I don’t believe in assisted suicide, but I absolutely believe in pulling the plug. The only exception if if you are getting temporary “assisted” life while waiting for an organ to enable you to again be self sufficiently alive while walking down the street.
If the only thing keeping you alive is machinery plugged into a wall socket, You should have the option to unplug and put it in God’s hands.
“Human beings do not need a brain to live.”
Good news for Antifa and Black Lies Matter.
You’re not legally dead until you stop voting. /s
Funniest headline ever. Does braindead count? Because Slow Joe might be legally dead.
Sounds like the job of state offices of vital statistics is being taken over by college professors and lawyers.
Ultimately it comes down to simple math, there are only so many life support machines available and not enough for those who need them. Keeping someone plugged in to one means someone else can't be.
I recall a few recent stories where truly hopeless patients were kept alive on machines because family members fought to keep them turned on. Yes, there are those "miracle" cases where someone who has been given up for brain-dead recovers but these cases are the extremely rare exception. Most of the time the doctors are right, the patients never recover, and massive expenses are incurred by the family.
The case of the 4-year old boy kept alive for 20 years is a curious one.
I reserve judgement until Miracle Max weighs in.
Interesting but reminds me of the ongoing controversy of ‘Whether Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold’.....
lulz
Today, we don’t know what a woman is and we don’t know who is dead.
Even the most ignorant of people living back in the “Dark Ages” could answer those questions.
You man Biden fits the definition of being dead?
Hire Doctor McCoy, he could tell in an instant if someone (or something) was dead.
an old girlfriend’s dad was killed by the Social Security Office!
some MENSA member entered his SS# into the “Socially Subtracted” category and by time he found out, the damage was done.
try proving you are alive, when the computer says you’re dead!
and he was a bar owner, what a mess...
“Human beings do not need a brain to live.”
Anyone who has ever done tech support or customer service knows this.
define alive. To the vast majority of us lying comatose on a machine somewhere is not life. It is interesting that most medical personnel that are the closest to these cases are the most adamant that nothing like that be done to them. A short stint on life support to aid recovery of a reversible illness? OK. But weeks or worse on life support? Ask doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists what they would want. the vehemence of their answers might surprise you.
As a boy I hated the fact that I’d be old. Really didn’t want to get old. I’ve never stopped resisting it. But here it is. Surprise assessment is I’m glad I’m not young.
I had a life. Sorry Charlie!
As a boy I hated the fact that I’d be old. Really didn’t want to get old. I’ve never stopped resisting it. But here it is. Surprise assessment is I’m glad I’m not young.
I had a life. Sorry Charlie!
Hint, brain cells die without O2 in 5 minutes.
My lawyer brother once told me that “legal death” is defined as the inability of an organism to initiate or sustain litigation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.