Diagnosing death: the "fuzzy area" between life and decomposition.

This paper aims to determine whether it is necessary to propose the extreme of putrefaction as the only unmistakable sign in diagnosing the death of the human organism, as David Oderberg does in a recent paper. To that end, we compare Oderberg's claims to those of other authors who align with him in espousing the so-called theory of hylomorphism but who defend either a neurological or a circulatory-respiratory criterion for death. We then establish which interpretation of biological phenomena is the most reasonable within the metaphysical framework of hylomorphism. In this regard, we hold that technology does not obscure the difference between life and death or confect metaphysically anomalous beings, such as living human bodies who are not organisms or animals of the human species who are informed by a vegetative soul, but instead demands a closer and more careful look at the "fuzzy area" between a healthy (living) organism and a decaying corpse. In the light of hylomorphism, we conclude that neurological and circulatory-respiratory criteria are not good instruments for diagnosing death, since they can offer only probabilistic prognoses of death. Of the two, brain death is further away from the moment of death as it merely predicts cardiac arrest that will likely result in death. Putrefaction, the criterion that Oderberg proposes, is at the opposite end of the fuzzy area. This is undoubtedly a true diagnosis of death, but it is not necessary to wait for putrefaction proper-a relatively late stage of decomposition-to be sure that death has already occurred. Rather, early cadaveric phenomena demonstrate that the matter composing a body is subject to the basic forces governing all matter in its environment and has thus succumbed to the universal current of entropy, meaning that the entropy-resisting activity has ceased to constitute an organismal unity. When this unity is lost, there is no possibility of return.

Guía práctica para el diagnóstico de muerte encefálica en urgencias del Hospital de San Ignacio (Bogotá, Colombia) / Diagnosis of Brain Death in the Emergency Room of San Ignacio Hospital from Bogota, Colombia: Practical Guideline

En la actualidad, los servicios de urgencias atienden pacientes con daño neurológicograve, especialmente por trauma craneoencefálico, en quienes durante la reanimacióninicial se logra la recuperación de la estabilidad hemodinámica, pero requieren intubacióntraqueal y soporte con ventilación mecánica, sin que con ello se logren recuperar lasfunciones cerebrales y de tallo, lo que lleva a la sospecha de muerte encefálica. No es útilque un paciente con alta probabilidad de certeza para este diagnóstico sea trasladado a unaunidad de cuidado intensivo, pero sí es necesario que los pacientes con este diagnóstico,potencialmente donantes de órganos, puedan ofrecer este último servicio altruista en suexistencia. Los médicos urgenciólogos deben hacer este diagnóstico cuando sea el casoy conocer el ámbito legal que lo rodea...

In currently, emergency services are faced with patients that have severe neurologicaldamage after traumatic brain injury, and especially in those that during the initial resuscitation is achieved hemodynamic stability,required intubation and mechanical ventilationsupport, and were unable to recovery functionalbrain, leading to the suspicion of brain death. Itis futile for those patients with a high probabilityof certainty of this diagnosis need to be hospitalizedto intensive care unit but, it is necessary forthose patients with a diagnosis of brain death,potential organ donor, can offer a last selflessservice in your existence. Emergency physiciansshould make this diagnosis when is appropriate,and know the legal field that surrounds it...

Diagnosis of brain death.

Brain death (BD) should be understood as the ultimate clinical expression of a brain catastrophe characterized by a complete and irreversible neurological stoppage, recognized by irreversible coma, absent brainstem reflexes, and apnea. The most common pattern is manifested by an elevation of intracranial pressure to a point beyond the mean arterial pressure, and hence cerebral perfusion pressure falls and, as a result, no net cerebral blood flow is present, in due course leading to permanent cytotoxic injury of the intracranial neuronal tissue. A second mechanism is an intrinsic injury affecting the nervous tissue at a cellular level which, if extensive and unremitting, can also lead to BD. We review here the methodology of diagnosing death, based on finding any of the signs of death. The irreversible loss of cardio-circulatory and respiratory functions can cause death only when ischemia and anoxia are prolonged enough to produce an irreversible destruction of the brain. The sign of such loss of brain functions, that is to say BD diagnosis, is fully reviewed.