A Holistic Understanding of Death: Ontological and Medical Considerations

Diametros 55:44-62 (2018)
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Abstract

In the ongoing ‘brain death’ controversy, there has been a constant push for the use of the ‘higher brain’ formulation as the criterion for the determination of death on the grounds that brain-dead individuals are no longer human beings because of their irreversible loss of consciousness and mental functions. This essay demonstrates that such a position flows from a Lockean view of human persons. Compared to the ‘consciousness-related definition of death,’ the substance view is superior, especially because it provides a holistic vision of the human person, and coheres with the perennial axiom about the ‘whole and parts.’

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Doyen Nguyen
Pontifical University Of St. Thoas Aquinas, Rome, Italy (Doctorate)

References found in this work

Individuals.P. F. Strawson - 1959 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 14 (2):246-246.
.David Wiggins - 2005 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research:442-448.
Sameness and Substance Renewed.David Wiggins - 2001 - Philosophy 79 (307):133-141.

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