Parents facing the decision to take their brain-dead daughter off life support are understandably, overwhelmed, confused, and conflicted. They cling to the hope that their daughter may someday awaken. In fact, several years ago, a teenager they knew was in a coma for several months after a car accident and subsequently made a remarkable recovery. Besides, their loved one does not look dead; she just appears to be asleep. They have even witnessed her moving, furthering their conviction that their daughter’s brain is still working. These parents refuse to deny their daughter a chance, no matter how small, at coming back to life.

There is always a chance that a brain-dead person will make a full recovery.

Questions

1. Brain-dead individuals show no electrical activity in the brain because brain cells are not passing electrical impulses to each other. Do comatose people show electrical activity in the brain?
2. Brain-dead people cannot breathe on their own because breathing is initiated in the brain stem, which has ceased to function. A mechanical ventilator can provide oxygen to their tissues, keeping nourished any tissues that are not dead. If the ventilator being used by a brain-dead person is removed, would that person be able to breathe on his or her own?
3. Is an unresponsive person who is breathing unaided in a coma or brain dead?
4. The regulation of body temperature, the ability to increase or decrease body temperature when the external environment changes, is a function of the brain. Would a brain-dead person be able to increase his or her body temperature in response to lowering the heat?
5. Some movements are the product of reflexes, which involve nerves between the muscles and the spine but not the brain. (When you jerk your hand away from a hot surface, the movement is done before you have time to use your brain to think about moving your hand.) Does the presence of these reflexive movements in an unresponsive person indicate that the brain is alive?
6. Consider your answers to questions 1–5 and explain why the original statement bolded above sounds right, but isn’t.