Is a person in deep coma dead?

Hi,

It used to be that when the heart stops, the person is considered dead. Since 1968, only if all brain activity ceases will the person be treated as dead. This definition is of utmost importance to doctors, family members and people waiting for organ donations from the dead body.

When the person goes into coma his body is warm, he bleeds when cut, he urinates, and defecates. Pregnant women in deep coma have given birth to normal children. The person can remain alive with the aid of ventilators and intensive nursing.

SIDE NOTE: Wikipedia says 'brain death' is not the same as 'persistent vegetative state'. Brain death leads to necrosis (death of living cells and tissues) of the brain tissue when there is no more blood supply and the person can no longer breathe without mechanical help. PVS means lack of awareness but independent breathing and other autonomous bodily functions carry on. PVS can follow a coma, so the person may vocalise, cry, fall asleep and wake up etc. but is not conscious. By the way, there is a rare birth defect called anencephaly - with most of the brain and skull missing. These unfortunate babies, if born, will survive only minutes to days (without life support, which is generally not provided).

Brain death does not necessarily lead to death of cells and organ systems? The vital functions such as breathing, heartbeat, temperature control, regulation of concentration and composition of blood and other involuntary functions are carried out by the brain stem (=medulla oblongata) found at the base of the brain. If this part is not affected, the body continues to live but the person is comatose.

Is a comatose person or one in a continuous vegetative state (see box) just a living cadaver? Is the person aware of himself, even if he or she responds to stimuli? Where is consciousness located?

To the Malays it is located in the liver (in the abdomen), to the Japanese and the Chinese it is located in the chest, to the Indians in the pineal body (behind the forehead). Obviously, they are all wrong: consciousness is in the brain, right? But if we cut our finger, we feel pain in our finger, not in our head.

So if no one really knows how consciousness and self-awareness arise, then we cannot be sure that brain death is death of the self.


Sponges provide a simpler example of seeming self-awareness. The sponge, a small lowly aquatic creature, which is made up of many cells (=multicellular organism), just like the human being. It has been observed that if this creature is squeezed through a special sieve, all the individual cells can be teased out. Then if these cells are left aside, they soon gather together and organise themselves back into the original sponge shape and function as if nothing untoward has happened!

This animation of a sponge is from UC Davis, California (click the 'Start Animation' button):
As simple as sponges are, this self(?)re-assembly is quite a complex task if you think about it. And where is the master control program located, telling each cell where to go and how to cooperate with its fellows?

This is weird. Is the sponge aware of itself? Were the individual cells aware of themselves after they have been teased apart? Is the sponge one animal or many unicellular animals living in a colony that we call the "sponge"? If the latter, what about herds of wildebeests or swarms of locusts? If you get a chance, try to observe the large flocks of starlings that congregate at dusk in different parts of Singapore. As they fly en masse, they are so well coordinated with each other, it is as if the flock is a single organism. Can the flock be said to be 'self aware' or have a basic consciousness?

Cheers