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Our hero: The reason brain death matters is that it points to something more fundamental: the end of an integrated organism. When an adult’s brain totally stops working, he or she stops acting as a unit, even if there’s still living tissue.

Brain Death

From fertilization, a zygote is already an organism, even before the brain develops. Check out this related article by Dr. Maureen Condic, a professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah.

First posted July 28, 2018

Suggested:

Person 1: We check for brainwaves to see if someone’s dead, so a fetus without brainwaves isn’t alive. Person 2 (our hero): I agree the brain is a critical organ. But it’s not required for biological life. E.g., trees don’t have brains, but they are alive.

Person 1 (our hero): You and I equally deserve the right to life. So do all our friends. What do we have in common that makes us equal? Person 2: We all have brains. Person 1 (our hero): Hm. If that were the right explanation, mice would deserve the same right to life as us.

Our hero: A human fetus displays the key characteristics of life, such as cellular reproduction, responding to stimuli, and converting food into energy. It’s debatable whether viruses are alive, but it seems pretty clear that a human fetus is biologically alive.

Person 1: We check for a heartbeat to see if someone’s dead, so a fetus without a heartbeat isn’t alive. Person 2 (our hero): I agree the heart is a critical organ. But it’s not required for biological life. E.g., flatworms don’t have hearts, but they’re alive.