Signs of Death

• Rigor mortis • Putrefaction• Absence of breathing and heartbeat– Less conclusive signs– Might be reversed by resuscitation

• Irreversible cessation of spontaneous heart and lung functions– Clinical signs of death

2 developments have led to the proposal of a new set of clinical signs for

determining the fact of human death

1. Mechanical devices have been perfected to aid heart and lung functions artificially or to enable a person to be resuscitated after these functions have crossed for a short time.

• Although this may keep some of the organs alive for awhile, and the living individual organs may stimulate unity, unity is no longer present because the organs would cease to function if the mechanisms were removed

• Thus, artificially sustained heart and lung activity is not proof that human life still remains

2. Recent advancement of techniques of transplanting organs, especially the kidney and heart

• Such transplants are more likely to be successful if the organs are harvested from a body through which blood is circulating

• Hence, surgeons prefer to keep the body of a “dead” donor “alive” on a respiratory