The Brain Stem: The Importance Of The Brain Death

The brain has many different parts to it which help one function through daily life; parts such as the cerebrum which controls voluntary movement and regulates functions such as thinking, speaking and the ability to recall information. The cerebellum controls the balance and coordination and finally the brain stem, which consists of the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord which controls all involuntary functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. The brain stem is also able to carry out these actions even when someone is asleep. To fully understand how crucial the brain is to survival one must understand the functions of the brain stem.

Brain death occurs when brain cells, which cannot regenerate themselves, are injured or dead. This results in brain death as the brain becomes starved of oxygen. One can only be pronounced brain dead, by a neurologist and even then, a number of criteria must be met, some of these include; unresponsiveness to stimuli; no reflexes and an inability to breathe unaided by a machine(Goila and Pawar, 2009). At this point one is put on a ventilator. A ventilator is a machine which maintains the circulation of blood, oxygen and nutrients to organs around the body. To put a patient on life support is very costly to the family of the patient and even the hospital.

Once a person is brain dead they are said to be legally dead and the time and date of deathis reflected on their death certificate. In South Africa it is not stated that doctors can withdraw life support once a patient is declared brain dead due to ethical debates (Fleischer, 2003). There have been some cases where people have been declared brain dead but then regain some brain activity (Greenberg, 2014). This has sparked debates...

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...ble. Although this is so, certain cases have indicated that some patients’ brains appeared lifeless, when they are in a coma, but are not completely brain dead, therefore the ventilation and persistence of their family has been beneficial to them. Recent cases also indicate that foetuses can be kept alive in their mother’s womb using ventilation if the mother has been declared brain dead.

The limitations of the research are that there have been little scientific studies of the benefits surrounding the area of research. It can be said that most doctors and physicians find there are no benefits to this because to them if a patient meets the brain dead criteria, they are legally dead. The evidence indicates that there are no scientific benefits to keeping a brain dead patient on life support but there is insufficient evidence for an accurate conclusion to be drawn.