Death

==== Brain death ====
Today, where a definition of the moment of death is required, doctors and coroners usually turn to "brain death" or "biological death" to define a person as being dead;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Belkin |first=Gary Stuart |title=Death Before Dying: History, Medicine, and Brain Death. |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-989817-6 |page=220}}</ref> people are considered dead when the electrical activity in their brain ceases.<ref>{{Cite web |last=New York State Department of Health |date=2011 |title=Guidelines for Determining Brain Death |url=https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/hospital_administrator/letters/2011/brain_death_guidelines.htm |access-date=February 15, 2023 |website=New York State |archive-date=24 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120124021515/https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/hospital_administrator/letters/2011/brain_death_guidelines.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> It is presumed that an end of electrical activity indicates the end of [[consciousness]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=National Health Service of the UK |date=September 8, 2022 |title=Overview: Brain death |url=https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/brain-death/#:~:text=Brain%20death%20(also%20known%20as,is%20legally%20confirmed%20as%20dead. |access-date=February 15, 2023 |website=National Health Service |archive-date=12 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081112175311/https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/brain-death/#:~:text=Brain%20death%20(also%20known%20as,is%20legally%20confirmed%20as%20dead. |url-status=live }}</ref> Suspension of consciousness must be permanent and not transient, as occurs during certain [[non-rapid eye movement sleep|sleep]] stages, and especially a coma.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nitkin |first=Karen |date=September 11, 2017 |title=The Challenges of Defining and Diagnosing Brain Death |url=https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/the-challenges-of-defining-and-diagnosing-brain-death#:~:text=Brain%20death%3A%20Irreversible%20cessation%20of,severe%20illness%20or%20brain%20injury. |access-date=February 15, 2023 |website=Johns Hopkins Medicine |archive-date=10 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010230354/https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/the-challenges-of-defining-and-diagnosing-brain-death#:~:text=Brain%20death%3A%20Irreversible%20cessation%20of,severe%20illness%20or%20brain%20injury. |url-status=live }}</ref> In the case of sleep, Electroencephalogram ([[electroencephalography|EEGs]]) are used to tell the difference.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chernecky |first1=Cynthia C. |title=Laboratory Tests and Diagnostic Procedures |last2=Berger |first2=Barbara J. |year=2013 |publisher=Saunders |isbn=978-1-4557-0694-5 |edition=6th }}</ref>

The category of "brain death" is seen as problematic by some scholars. For instance, Dr. Franklin Miller, a senior faculty member at the Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, notes: "By the late 1990s... the equation of brain death with death of the human being was increasingly challenged by scholars, based on evidence regarding the array of biological functioning displayed by patients correctly diagnosed as having this condition who were maintained on mechanical ventilation for substantial periods of time. These patients maintained the ability to sustain circulation and respiration, control temperature, excrete wastes, heal wounds, fight infections and, most dramatically, to gestate fetuses (in the case of pregnant "brain-dead" women)."<ref name=Miller>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=F.G.|title=Death and organ donation: back to the future|journal=Journal of Medical Ethics|date=October 2009 |volume=35 |issue=10 |pages=616–620 |doi=10.1136/jme.2009.030627 |pmid=19793942|doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[File:French - Pendant with a Monk and Death - Walters 71461.jpg|thumb|alt=Ivory pendant of a Monk's face. The left half of the pendant appears skeletal, while the right half appears living|French – 16th-/17th-century ivory pendant, Monk and Death, recalling mortality and the certainty of death ([[Walters Art Museum]])]]

While "brain death" is viewed as problematic by some scholars, there are proponents of it{{Who|date=November 2023}} that believe this definition of death is the most reasonable for distinguishing life from death. The reasoning behind the support for this definition is that brain death has a set of criteria that is reliable and reproducible. Also, the brain is crucial in determining our identity or who we are as human beings. The distinction should be made that "brain death" cannot be equated with one in a vegetative state or coma, in that the former situation describes a state that is beyond recovery.<ref name="Magnus-2014">{{cite journal |last1=Magnus |first1=David C. |last2=Wilfond |first2=Benjamin S. |last3=Caplan |first3=Arthur L. |date=2014-03-06 |title=Accepting Brain Death |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |volume=370 |issue=10 |pages=891–894 |doi=10.1056/NEJMp1400930 |issn=0028-4793 |pmid=24499177}}</ref>

EEGs can detect spurious electrical impulses, while certain drugs, [[hypoglycemia]], [[hypoxia (medical)|hypoxia]], or [[hypothermia]] can suppress or even stop brain activity temporarily;<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nicol |first1=A. U. |last2=Morton |first2=A. J. |date=June 11, 2020 |title=Characteristic patterns of EEG oscillations in sheep (Ovis aries) induced by ketamine may explain the psychotropic effects seen in humans. |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=9440 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-66023-8 |pmid=32528071 |pmc=7289807 |bibcode=2020NatSR..10.9440N }}</ref> because of this, hospitals have protocols for determining brain death involving EEGs at widely separated intervals under defined conditions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=New York Department of Health |date=December 5, 2011 |title=Guidelines for Determining Brain Death |url=https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/hospital_administrator/letters/2011/brain_death_guidelines.htm#:~:text=Electroencephalography%20(EEG)%3A%20Brain%20death,criteria%20listed%20in%20Appendix%202. |access-date=February 15, 2023 |website=New York State |archive-date=24 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120124021515/https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/hospital_administrator/letters/2011/brain_death_guidelines.htm#:~:text=Electroencephalography%20(EEG)%3A%20Brain%20death,criteria%20listed%20in%20Appendix%202. |url-status=live }}</ref>