The Definition Of Death: The Views Of Life And Death

From a biological perspective, the boundaries of life and death are not clear. There is no simple right answer to when something is to be identified as living as well as dead. The views of life and death are far more in the details of personal morality within politics rather than looking at it through science. As people holding picket signs stand out in front of abortion clinics screaming “Murder!” to passersby’s we have to question ourselves beyond the biological understanding of what is living and focus more morally-based in deciding the voluntary termination of a woman’s pregnancy by ways of removing the fetus or embryo. Death is both a legal and medical question. It has adopted new standards of what it is to be considered dead such as the obvious cessatation of the cardiopulmonary system as well as someone who is considered brain dead. Religion too plays a role in establishing the right to live or die of a patient that can disregard the laws of the UDDA. In this paper I will give my understanding of today’s definition of death as well as give examples of hospital cases in which the right to live was challenged.

Traditionally in the medical field, death was understood as the inability for the heart to pump blood into the body anymore (Uniform Determination of Death Act). This though, is an obvious understanding of death so in the mid 1970’s Kansas decided that there was more than a non-working heart to define death. They then recognized that brain dead patients are to also be considered in the UDDA in which they defined it as, “[a]n individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain ste...

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...e end, an innocent woman’s life was saved.

As said before, medically it is a challenge to give definite definitions of what is life and death. There are clear signs in which we know that death is inevitable. In the theory of Immanuel Kant’s deontology he explains that there are two types of duties in which we follow that have the chance of conflicting. For that he called for Prima Facie, where a duty is morally binding unless in conflicts of a higher duty. The concern with justice is debatable on if an individual should agree or disagree to with following the duty of what they believe is morally right and what the group believes. In the case of the sick mother, her survival stood higher in duty than the inevitable death of her unborn baby. As well as the case of a woman who’s death could be defined by her persistent vegetative state in which there was to be no cure.