Does Anyone Survive Neocortical Death?

Abstract

One day on a very cold morning, I started the engine of my car without opening the garage door, then retreated to the kitchen to let it warm up. At that moment there was a long distance phone call from my publisher, and I spent a half hour haggling over the terms of a contract. Upon returning to the garage I found there, alongside the car, my dog Fido. Of course I immediately opened the automatic door and carried him outside into the fresh air. When I saw he wasn’t breathing I pressed rhythmically on his chest cavity, and sure enough his heart and lungs started to respond. But still he did not wake up, so I took him to the vet’s on the way to the university. The vet said Fido appeared to be comatose as a result of carbonmonoxide poisoning, and advised that I prepare myself for the worst. He said it seemed the dog would not recover consciousness because the top of the brain was destroyed, although the brain stem must be intact, since Fido could breathe unaided. What should I do?

A person is dead when an irreversible cessation of all that person’s brain functions has occurred. The cessation of brain functions can be determined by the prolonged absence of spontaneous cardiac and respiratory functions. Law Reform Commission of Canada Working Paper 23 (1979, pp. 58–59)

An individual with irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. Defining Death, President’s Commission ([15], p. 162)