1. Determining death Why pertain to the 21 st century ? By - SP

2. Importance of determine death ? pronounce a person’s death is it legal to stop life-support to proceed with organ transplanting when to proceed with religious rituals everybody in the society has to agree with the diagnosis Social, legal and religious value

3. Intro to human brain http://www.tbirecoverycenter.org/treatment.htm

4. Current situation define death as cessation of whole brain function (by physician) takes minimum of 2 hours to diagnose, but can be longer (years) most of the time life-support is supplied even when its irreversible (expensive treatment) some parts of brain survive due to artificial respiration (ventilator) ethical and moral issues resulting court’s judgment different religions disagree on some occasions less than 5% are defined as brain dead –other methods of determining death are inefficient for the needs –doesn’t support organ transplanting

5. What is being done introduce death as cessation of the part of brain cells (efficient diagnose) or introduce a definition more satisfying to all the ethical needs let patient decide before he/she proceeds to persistent vegetative state (Euthanasia) let patient decide who should have control If patient wishes life-supporting machineries to keep them alive, there has to be a less expensive method to do it. If not, the government will have to put in more funds.

6. Reference Somerville M. (2000). The Ethical Canary: Terminating Life Support without Consent. Canada: Penguin Books Canada Limited. Humphry D. and Wickett A. (1986), The Right to Die: Defining Death. Great Britain: The Bodley Head Ltd. Benjamin F. Trump, Thomas R. McCormick (2007). Death. AccessScience@McGraw-Hill. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from http://www.accessscience.com/abstract.aspx?id=181800&referURL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.accessscience.com%2fcontent.aspx%3fid%3d181800 http://www.accessscience.com/abstract.aspx?id=181800&referURL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.accessscience.com%2fcontent.aspx%3fid%3d181800 Veatch, R. M. (2007).Death and Dying. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0081687-0 http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0081687-0 Neil M. Lazar, Sam Shemie, Geroge C. Webster, Nernard M. Dickens (2001). Brain Death. Bioethics for clinicians, 24. Retrieved Novemeber 17, 2007, from http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/164/6/833http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/164/6/833 Wayne Kondro. (October 24, 2006). Fragmented Organ Donation Programs Hinder Progress. CMAJ (1043-1045). Retrieved November 20, 2007, from http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/175/9/1043?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=fragmented+organ +donation+programs&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/175/9/1043?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=fragmented+organ +donation+programs&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT Michael Ptts. (August 7, 2001). Debating The Criteria for Brain Death. Correspondence posted to http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/165/3/269?maxtoshow=&HITS=25&hits=25&RESULTFORMAT=3&fulltext=brain+death&andorexactfu lltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=135&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/165/3/269?maxtoshow=&HITS=25&hits=25&RESULTFORMAT=3&fulltext=brain+death&andorexactfu lltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=135&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT