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Brain Death Induction in Mice Using Intra-Arterial Blood Pressure Monitoring and Ventilation via Tracheostomy
Published on: April 17, 2020
Irreversibility: cardiac death versus brain death.
Calixto Machado1, Julius Korein
1Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Havana, Cuba. braind@infomed.sld.cu
Reviews in the Neurosciences
|February 18, 2010
Summary
Brain death (BD) is accepted as human death, but cardiocirculatory criteria for donors raise ethical questions. Prolonged asystole is needed for irreversibility, while BD ensures both cessation of function and irreversibility.
Area of Science:
- Medical Ethics
- Neurology
- Transplantation Medicine
Background:
- The concept of brain death (BD) as human death has gained acceptance since the 1960s.
- Diagnosis of death hinges on irreversibility and cessation of functions.
- Recent proposals for cardiocirculatory criteria in non-heart-beating donors spark debate.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the validity of cardiocirculatory criteria for death determination.
- To address ethical and medical controversies surrounding non-heart-beating donors.
- To compare cardiocirculatory criteria with brain death criteria for ensuring irreversibility.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on death determination criteria.
- Analysis of the concept of irreversibility in the context of cardiac arrest and brain death.
- Ethical and medical considerations of different death determination protocols.
Main Results:
- Cardiocirculatory criteria for death require prolonged asystole to guarantee irreversible brain destruction.
- Brain death (BD) diagnosis inherently satisfies both cessation of functions and irreversibility.
- Concerns persist regarding the acceptance of non-heart-beating donors as truly deceased.
Conclusions:
- Brain death (BD) remains the definitive criterion for human death, ensuring both functional cessation and irreversibility.
- Cardiocirculatory criteria are only reliable for death determination when sufficient asystole duration ensures irreversible brain damage.
- Further ethical and medical consensus is needed for non-heart-beating donor protocols.
