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April 22, 2005
"Brain Death"—The Hoax That Won't Die
Author's Note: In an article posted below, Carl Rossini rightly indicts "persistent vegetative state" as "a very useful term if you are an advocate of euthanasia." The same indictment, however, applies to "brain death," a medical and legal fiction coined to promote utilitarian and other forms of euthanasia. In this regard, the following article should prove enlightening.
"Brain Death"—The Hoax That Won't Die
by Earl E. Appleby, Jr.
Whether you are classified as dead or alive depends upon your attending physician's understanding of the concept of death. The radical departure from the traditional cardiorespiratory standard of death inherent in "brain death" has, in Capron and Kass's words, brought "extramedical concepts to the forefront of concern." Moreover, "medical judgments," as Lamb reminds us "are informed by philosophical presuppositions, whether or not the latter are explicitly formulated." The following article explicates the "philosophical presuppositions" underlying the "extramedical concepts" of brain death as articulated by its proponents.
If as propagandist par excellence, Joseph Goebbels maintained, a lie repeated often enough is soon believed, the brainwashed public's blind faith in "brain death" is telling testimony to the pervasive power of the big lie. Regrettably, while the medical myth of brain death won't die, its victims do.
Brain death, a prominent proponent attests, is "a creation of prevailing medical technologies." Ironically, these "technologies" have nothing to do with the ability to determine death and everything to do with the ability to sustain life.
Crossposted to Life Matters!
Posted by earl at April 22, 2005 09:06 PM
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