Submitted by: Submitted by rachel9676
Views: 10
Words: 742
Pages: 3
Category: Philosophy and Psychology
Date Submitted: 02/26/2016 08:29 AM
Key terms:
Brain death (286) - is understood as the irreversible cessation of functioning in the brain
as a whole
dying (287)- McMahan describes this as when the body cannot sustain itself
ceasing to exist (287)- This is defined by McMahan as when the “soul” or higher thinking part of the brain can no longer function (the personality, memories ect.)
persistent vegetative state (288)-an individual who has no aptitude for consciousness or thought yet has a functioning brain stem
conceptual claim(290)- a claim about the concept of life in a human organism
Key Theses + Arguments:
Sometimes “death” refers to a biological event, but sometimes it refers to the ceasing to exist of a person. (287)- Here McMahan illustrates the difference between a body or an organism dying and the permanent loss of higher level brain function (including personality, memories, ect.).
Brain death is not equivalent to either the irreversible loss of the
capacity for consciousness or the irreversible cessation of integrated functioning in the
organism as a whole (288)- McMahan argues if somehow a person could maintain consciousness although they have lost integrated functioning, they would not be viewed as “dead”. The same goes if a human could maintain all bodily functions but was not conscious.
Integrated functioning can cease without brain death occurring; rather, they show that brain death can occur without the cessation of integrated functioning (289)-This is how McMahan illustrates how brain death and cessation of function can both happen with or without the other. This is important because in some cases the patient’s body can function but there is no higher thinking and vice versa.
Unless the integration of functions in a human organism is both internal and centralized in the brain, it necessarily cannot be constitutive of life in the organism. (290)- McMahan uses this to go into more detail as to what constitutes the life of an organis. He defines this as the...