Question

If the cortical death definition were adopted, then physicians could claim a person is dead when his or her ________ is no longer functioning.

Answer 1

The physicians could claim a person to be dead when their higher brain is no longer functioning, even if their lower brain is still functioning and their heart is still beating. This would lead to a breakthrough on many life support ethical debates where people's lives are prolonged artificially after brain death, but many would consider terminating their life support morally wrong.