Maybe if we took cremation as an end point?
When I was an A&E SHO, I heard that ambulance crews were
only allowed to pronounce victims dead at the scene of the
accident if the head was severed from the body and 6 feet away!
(visions of them with a tape measure gently nudging it from 5 feet
10 inches)
Jonathan Michaels wrote:
> Back to gold standards. Your statement that 'death is absolute' provides a
> good example of some of the issues. It is arguable (but unascertainable)
> whether there an absolute condition of 'death'. However it seems to me that
> the diagnosis of death is always relative and depends upon ones definition of
> the condition. We've all heard of examples of people waking up in a mortuary
> after being mistakenly certified as dead, there are example of resuscitation
> of children drowned
<snip>
>and the decapitated ventilated patient was alive
Regards Alan O'Rourke
Alan O'Rourke
Information Officer
Wisdom Centre for Network Learning
http://www.wisdom.org.uk/
Institute of General Practice
Community Sciences Centre
Northern General Hospital Sheffield S5 7AU
Tel: 0114 271 5095 Fax: 0114 243 3762
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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