Brain
Dead or Brain Revival?
Brain
death has always been a confusing phenomenon that many health professionals and
family members have tried to understand. In the article, Brain Death:
What Health Professionals Should Know by Tina Powell, she addresses
how health care professionals do not have a “clear definition and assessment”
when talking about this phenomenon. In 2010, the American Academy of Neurology
(ANN) created three signs that physicians could use to declare a patient brain
dead. These signs stated the person must be in a permanent coma and the
physicians must know the cause of the coma. Along with that, the reflexes of the
brain stem can no longer be working and finally, the patient can no longer
breathe on their own. With these guidelines, one would believe that healthcare
professionals would be able to address brain death in a clearer fashion, but
with more research coming out, the ethical guidelines are about to become more
complicated.
An article in National Geographic by Michael Greshko addresses a new study published
in April of this year; showing that scientists have discovered a way to restore
the functions in a dead brain. In the journal Nature, scientists at
Yale University have invented a dialysis machine called BrainEx. In this study,
researchers took brains from already decreased pigs and placed them in this
dialysis machine. BrainEx was able to restore functions in the brain such as
its ability to take in glucose and oxygen (up to six hours). This allowed the
brain to establish circulation. BrainEx creates a nourishing solution that
allows dead brains to mimic the body’s natural circulation while restoring the
tiniest blood vessels. One of the neuroscientists, Nenah Sestan states that
“clinically, it’s not a living brain”, but the machine was able to bring back
functions that a living brain requires. With a machine such as BrainEx, Nita
Farahany, a bioethicist at Duke University School of Law states that this
discovery, “challenges a lot of fundamental assumptions that we had in
neuroscience, like that once there is a loss of oxygen to the brain, it’s
irreversible march towards death.”
(Preserved Pig Brain; National
Geographic)
With BrainEx proving that to
false, we return to the conversation that Joe Vukov, an Assistant Professor in
the Philosophy Department brought to seminar. What are ethical implications of
brain death and how do we address it to family members that could one day
benefit from the research neuroscience offers? To that, Nita Farahany says,
“profound ethical and legal issues are raised.” It all goes back to how we
define brain death, which is still a question being remodeled and being
answered by ANN’s three checklist. This new technology may establish a new
conversation other than the three checklist among healthcare providers. As of
right now however, BrainEx's ability to restore cellular functioning does not
mean scientists are ready to bring brain dead humans back to consciousness.
Farahany states that while the pigs didn’t consciously come back and it’s too
early to know if that’s a possibility, scientists are closer to having that
outcome become reality. Technology such as BrainEx could change how healthcare
providers talk about brain death to their patients, because it can create a
route to revival. In seminar, Professor Vukov discussed how there needs to be a
change in communication between family members that have loved ones who are
labeled brain dead by healthcare providers. If studies such as BrainEx continue
to be successful in trials and one day are given clearance to be used on humans,
at least healthcare providers can have one outlet to offer family members that
want to bring their loved ones back.
Information
about Yale Study and Ethical Implications provided by:
Greshko, Michael. “Pig Brains Partially
Revived Hours after Death-What It Means for People.” National Geographic,
17 Apr. 2019,
www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/04/pig-brains-partially-revived-what-it-means-for-medicine-death-ethics/.
American
Academy of Nueorology Background provided by:
https://www.aan.com/Guidelines/Home/GetGuidelineContent
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