Can we lable a brain dead person as actually dead?

Question

Many of the people in this world are cremated after they have been declared brain dead, even if the other vital organs and the functions of the body go on. Is it true to say that Brain dead is really dead?

Answer 1

Brain death is defined as a complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity. Absence of apparent brain function is not enough. Evidence of irreversibility is also required. Brain-death is often confused with the state of vegetation.

Traditionally, death has been defined as the cessation of all body functions, including respiration and heartbeat. Since it became possible to revive some people after a period without respiration, heartbeat, or other visible signs of life, as well as to maintain respiration and blood flow artificially using life support treatments, an alternative definition for death was needed. In recent decades, the concept of "brain death" has emerged. By brain-death criteria, a person can be pronounced legally dead even if the heart continues to beat due to life support measures.

brain-dead individual has no electrical activity and no clinical evidence of brain function on neurologic examination (no response to pain, no cranial nerve reflexes (pupillary response (fixed pupils), oculocephalic reflex, corneal reflexes), and no spontaneous respirations). It is important to distinguish between brain death and states that mimic brain death (eg. barbiturate intoxication, alcohol intoxication, sedative overdose, hypothermia, hypoglycemia, coma or chronic vegetative states). Some comatose patients can recover, and some patients with severe irreversible neurologic dysfunction will nonetheless retain some lower brain functions such as spontaneous respiration, loss of both cortex and brainstem function. Thus anencephaly, in which there is no higher brain present, is generally not considered brain death, although it is certainly an irreversible condition in which it may be appropriate to withdraw life support.

Answer 2

If life support equipment is the only thing keeping them alive and the docs say they're brain dead, they are. Docs won't jump to this conclusion, they have methods of testing for this.
When the brain is dead, what's left?
I for one don't want to hang around on or off life support for no apparent reason. If the brain is dead, everything beyond auto function is gone. I can't think, play, or read. I lay there like a lump, taking up time and space in a room and am soon forgotten. Why would I want to live like that?
Sure, it'd be fun to make my kid have to change my sh***y diaper like I did hers, but I wouldn't be able to enjoy it because I wouldn't be aware of it happening. Kind of takes all the fun out of it.

Answer 3

Without a brain, the body is just a 'machine'...quality of life must be considered...what qualitiy of life exists in someone whose brain is not functioning? They are dead for all intents and purposes...

Answer 4

no, they are just in a vegitative state