DEATH

LEGAL-MEDICAL DEFINITION
What is death?

When can we say that someone is dead?

When can a medical practitioner declares someone’s

death?
When someone’s heart beat and breathing stopped—
dead. (cardio-pulmonary-based definition of death)
However, two things made the medical experts
reconsider this cardio-pulmonary based definition:
1. The advent of life extending machines
2. The practice of organ transplant
Because of these, medical experts from Harvard Medical
School were prompted to release a new definition of
death…
August 1968--- The Journal of the American Medical
Association released “A definition of irreversible Coma”.

Where DEATH is redefined from its traditional cardio-

pulmonary bases to NEUROLOGICAL based definition.

DEATH IS NO LONGER JUST THE ABSENCE OF HEARTBEAT

AND BREATHING.
A patient who is breathing and whose heart is
functioning through medical machines, may no
longer have any brain activity; which according to
new definition is already DEAD.

According to Medical experts from Harvard Medical

School:
`Our primary purpose is to define irreversible coma as
a new criterion for death’
There are two reasons why there is a need for
definition:
1. improvements in resuscitative and supportive
measures have led to increased efforts to save those
who are desperately injured.
2. obsolete criteria for definition of death can lead to
controversy in obtaining organs for transplantation.
Medical practitioners are somehow afraid of when
to declare the death of a person; when can the
organs of a brain dead be harvested/ when to pull
out the life-support machines.

A legal definition of death: Republic Act 7170

Section 2, paragraph (j) of the Organ Donation Act of

1991
A legal definition of death: Republic Act 7170
Section 2, paragraph (j) of the Organ Donation Act of
1991
j) Death- the irreversible cessation of circulatory
and respiratory functions or the irreversible
cessation of all functions of the entire brain,
including the brain stem. A person shall be
medically and legally dead if either:
(1) In the opinion of the attending physician,
based on the acceptable standards of medical
practice, there is an absence of natural
respiratory and cardiac functions, and attempts
at resuscitation would not be successful in
restoring those functions. In this case, death
shall be deemed to have occurred at the time
those functions ceased; or
(2) In the opinion of the consulting physician ,
concurred in by the attending physician, that on
the basis of acceptable standards of medical
practice, there is an irreversible cessation of all
brain functions, and considering the absence of
each functions, further attempts at resuscitation
or continued supportive maintenance would not
be successful in restoring such natural functions.
In this case, death shall be deemed to have
occurred at the time when those conditions fist
appeared.
DEATH: RELIGIOUS DEFINITION

Some objections to the legal-medical definition

of death that focuses on the functions of the
brain are coming from religious perspectives
which criticized the very rational based-
foundation of human life. They reject the
medical-scientific criteria of death and base their
concept instead on their own sacred texts.
Not every religion though rejects the medical
definition of death that is based on brain activity.
Some religious perspectives recognize the
authority and independence of medical authorities
concerning the criteria for death.
Pope John Paul II:
“With regard to the parameters used today for
ascertaining death– whether the encephalic signs
or the more traditional cardio-respiratory signs—
the church does not make technical decisions.”
The differences of perspectives, beliefs, and
practices among religions are extensive that it
prevents us from establishing a single definition of
death.
Death for most, if not all, religion is not simply a
biological and medical incident where the brain or
the vital organs stop functioning. The belief in
afterlife changes the way people see death.
Because of the afterlife death is now defined as a
transition– a shift from the earthly life to the life
after life.
 What happens to the soul after death?.?
It varies from religion to religion:
Abrahamic religions( Christianity, Judaism, and
Islam): ‘The soul will be directed to a place that
is proportionate to its moral status during its
earthly life.’

Heaven-Hell-Purgatory
However, even with Christianity, there are
existing variations regarding the destination of
the soul.

Protestant Christians do not subscribe to the

idea of purgatory, while Catholics do.

Islam subscribes to the concept of heaven

(paradise) and hell.
Judaism subscribes to a place similar to paradise
(heaven) where souls go if they have a good
moral status in their earthly life.
Other main belief about what happens to the soul
after death, is that it undergoes rebirth----
REINCARNATION
Life is a cycle of birth and rebirth.

This belief is usually found in the Dharmic or

Indian religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,
Sikhism)S
The type of rebirth shall be determined by karma;
which is the moral quality of human actions. A
bad moral standing leads to a lower form of
rebirth, and a good moral standing will lead to a
higher form of rebirth.
EXISTENTIAL DEFINITION
The religious definition of death that focused on
the afterlife was criticized by many thinkers in the
philosophical tradition called existentialism.