HW 51 - Second Third of COTD Book

Precis:

Doctors tried to invent different ways to verify the death of a patient. Based on this research questions about the conditions of someone’s soul based on people’s different philosophies was proposed. These doctors conducted experiments about the functionality of personality, and the state of one’s nervous system without their head because some doctors believed that your head consisted of your soul while the rest remains a lifeless body. The idea of donating organs was also proposed as well because if you are healthy some useful organs may remain that can be beneficial to different patients.

Quotes:

“The confusion people feel over beating-heart cadavers reflects centuries of confusion over how, exactly, to define death, to pinpoint the precise moment when the spirit-the soul, the chi, whatever you wish to call it- has ceased to exist and all that remains is a corpse” (Pg. 170).

“It was phenomena like this that threw eighteenth-century medical philosophers into a tizzy: If the soul was in the brain and not the heart, as may believed at that time, how could the heart keep beating outside the body, cut off from the soul” (Pg. 180).

“On a rational level, most people are comfortable with the concept of brain death and organ donation. But on an emotional level, they may have a harder time accepting it, particularly when they are being asked to accept it by a transplant counselor who would like them to okay the removal of a family member’s beating heart” (Pg. 188).

“White would very much like to see the church change its definition of death from “the moment the soul leaves the body” to “the moment the soul leaves the brain,” especially given that Catholicism accepts both the concept of brain death and the practice of organ transplantation..” (Pg. 216).

Analysis:

This passage was interesting because it made me question some of the opinions our society may have about death and the condition of one’s soul. What does it feel like when you die? It was also interesting reading about the Guillotine I never knew that the guillotine replaced the noose and it was said to be a much more humane way to die. The remains of those prisoners were then used to conduct research about the soul. Another point that was brought up throughout this section of the book was organ donation. After conducting research about the human head researchers considered when the first head transplant would take place. Honestly I never even considered what would happen to the body if it is without certain functions but there are people who experience that everyday. What parts of the body are needed for the human body to function?