DEFINING DEATH: BEYOND BIOLOGY.
The debate over whether brain death is death has focused on whether individuals who have sustained total brain failure have satisfied the biological definition of death as "the irreversible loss of the integration of the organism as a whole." In this paper, I argue that what it means for an organism...
| Publicado en: | Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy no. 55; pp. 1 - 20 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy
Mar2018
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=130405152&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 130405152 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 17335566 77X1 jtl: Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy issn: 17335566 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2018 iid: 55 pid: 49926 pub: Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy artinfo: ui: 130405152 10.13153/diam.1172 ppf: 1 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 2.1MB tig: atl: DEFINING DEATH: BEYOND BIOLOGY. aug: au: Lizza, John P. su: Brain death Human beings sug: subj: Brain death Human beings keyword: brain death death definition of death neurological criterion for determining death ab: The debate over whether brain death is death has focused on whether individuals who have sustained total brain failure have satisfied the biological definition of death as "the irreversible loss of the integration of the organism as a whole." In this paper, I argue that what it means for an organism to be integrated "as a whole" is undefined and vague in the views of those who attempt to define death as the irreversible loss of the integration of the organism as a whole. I show how what it means for a living thing to be integrated as a whole depends on the sortal (kind) concept by which it is identified. Since interests, values, and ontological considerations besides strictly biological ones affect the concepts by which we individuate and identify living things, those nonbiological considerations have a bearing on what it means for a particular kind of living thing to exist as a whole and thus what it means for one of us to die. Even if our bodies may remain organically integrated in some sense despite total brain failure, this fact should not lead us to reject brain death as death. Artificially sustained brain-dead human bodies are not human beings, but the remains of them. While such bodies may be alive in some sense, they are not human beings or human persons. They are not one of us. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy is the property of Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy holder: Diametros: An Online Journal of Philosophy dt: @attributes: year: 2018 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|