Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. It should not be confused with a persistent vegetative state. Patients classified as brain dead can have their organs surgically removed for organ donation.
Brain death, either of the whole brain or the brain stem, is used as a legal indicator of death in many jurisdictions.
Read more about Brain Death: Legal History, Medical Criteria, Consciousness, Organ Donation
Famous quotes containing the words brain and/or death:
“She turns and looks a moment in the glass,
Hardly aware of her departed lover;
Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:
“Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.””
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“when it comes to my death let it be slow,
let it be pantomime, this last peep show,
so that I may squat at the edge trying on
my black necessary trousseau.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)