Clinical Death
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In , the State of Oregon placed the issue on the ballot, amid much consternation and dispute. Perhaps the main reason euthanasia has become front page news is because Dr.
Jack Kevorkian, a pathologist from Michigan, is one of its most vocal advocates. The issue highlights the many new problems generated by increasing ability to intervene effectively in the final moments of life and unnaturally prolong the process of dying. The public appearance of euthanasia has also stimulated discussion about more compassionate care of the dying. Autopsy after death is a way to precisely determine a cause of death. The word autopsy is derived from Greek meaning to see with one's own eyes. A pathologist extensively examines a body and submits a detailed report to an attending physician.
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Although an autopsy can do nothing for an individual after death, it can benefit the family and, in some cases, medical science. Hereditary disorders and disease may be found.
This knowledge could be used to prevent illness in other family members. Information culled from an autopsy can be used to further medical research. The link between smoking and lung cancer was confirmed from data gathered through autopsy. Early information about AIDS was also compiled through autopsy reports. What Happens to DeadBodies? Galen Press Ltd, Post Mortem Technique Handbook. A Population-based Autopsy Study. Effect of AtemortemCardiovascular Disease. American Academy of Family Physicians.
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State Street, Chicago, IL American Society of Clinical Pathologists. College of American Pathologists. Hospice Foundation of America. Association for Death Education and Counseling. There is at present no standardized diagnosis of clinical death or precise definition of human death. The most widely known and commonly accepted means of determining death evolved from several medical conferences held in the late s for the purpose of defining irreversible coma or nonfunctioning brain as a new criterion for death.
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- Clinical Death Versus Brain Death: Which Comes First?.
- Clinical Death and Biological Death: They're Not Quite the Same?
The indications of deep irreversible coma or brain death are 1 absolute unresponsiveness to externally applied stimuli; 2 cessation of movement and breathing, including no spontaneous breathing for three minutes after an artificial respirator has been turned off; and 3 complete absence of cephalic reflexes. The pupils of the eyes must be dilated and unresponsive to direct light.
Use of the electroencephalogram is also recommended as being of value in confirmation of irreversible coma or death. If there is a flat electroencephalographic reading at the time of apparent death and a second flat reading 24 hours later, then the patient may be declared dead. There are two exceptions to the above criteria.
These are in regard to patients exhibiting marked hypothermia body temperature below It is recognized that the above criteria are limited in that the notion of irreversibility is not readily agreed upon and may take on new meaning as medical technology advances. The criteria are especially helpful as complements to the traditional criteria of absence of heart beat and lack of spontaneous respiration as indications of death.
In , a Presidential Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research strongly recommended that all of the United States recognize the cessation of brain function as a definition of death, even in cases in which life-support systems could maintain respiratory and circulatory functions by artificial means. T lymphocytes are activated when a foreign agent is perceived, and AICD thereby prevents them from overgrowth. It is particularly important for regulation of lymphocytes that recognize self antigens.
This effort continues until either the heart is restarted, or a physician determines that continued efforts are useless and recovery is impossible. If this determination is made, the physician pronounces legal death and resuscitation efforts stop. If clinical death is expected due to terminal illness or withdrawal of supportive care, often a Do Not Resuscitate DNR or "no code" order is in place.
This means that no resuscitation efforts are made, and a physician or nurse may pronounce legal death at the onset of clinical death.
Clinically Dead? The Blurred Line Between Life and Death
A patient with working heart and lungs who is determined to be brain dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring. However, some courts have been reluctant to impose such a determination over the religious objections of family members, such as in the Jesse Koochin case. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Effect on cerebral and cardiac outcome". Pronouncing someone dead should only be done by a medical doctor or coroner. It is said in emergency medicine that "nobody is dead until they are warm and dead. Under laboratory conditions at normal body temperature, the longest period of clinical death of a cat after complete circulatory arrest survived with eventual return of brain function is one hour.
Death Brain death Legal death Cardiac arrest Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest Therapeutic hypothermia Information-theoretic death Lazarus phenomenon Near-death experience. Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. Retrieved 27 January Current Opinion in Critical Care. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland. Archived from the original on 11 October Retrieved 9 January Current Opinion in Anesthesiology.
Retrieved 7 January Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. New York Academy of Sciences. Effect on cerebral and cardiac outcome".
Clinically Dead? The Blurred Line Between Life and Death
American Association for the Advancement of Science. Journal of the Neurological Sciences. European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Only when a physician calls off the efforts and throws in the towel can brain or biological death, eventually followed by legal death, be declared. Subscribe or Give a Gift. Humans Reached the Roof of the World 40, Years. Learning to Speak Latino. Science Age of Humans. A New Treatment for Blindness. America's Most Revolutionary Artist. At the Smithsonian Visit.
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