Japan: Brain Dead Person From the Viewpoint of Life Studies

Brain Dead Person from the Viewpoint of Life Studies (1989)
By Masahiro Morioka, International Network for Life Studies

The classic book that introduced "human relationship oriented analysis" instead of "brain-centered analysis," and fundamentally changed Japanese bioethics. Stimulating discussion especially to an English audience

ABOUT THIS BOOK / TABLE OF CONTENTS: click here

What Kind of Place is an Intensive Care Unit?
In this Chapter 2 of "Brain Dead Person", Masahiro Morioka introduced the idea of "care of the sphere" that surrounds a brain dead person in an intensive care unit.

==> Read Chapter 2 of "Brain Dead Person"

My Death and the Death of Others: Chapter 5 of "Brain Dead Person"
"My death," "death of a person familiar to me," and "death of a person unfamiliar to me," the importance of our shared life history and memories of a brain dead person.

==> Read Chapter 5 of "Brain Dead Person"

Efficiency and Irreplaceability: Chapter 7 of "Brain Dead Person"
The importance of "nursing care" in the ethics of brain death and organ transplants, and the possibility of alternative methods of dealing with matters of life and death.

==> Read Chapter 7 of "Brain Dead Person"

"I have often considered the following question: isn’t it possible to see science from the point of view of someone directly involved? When we look at medicine from the standpoint of an onlooker, we find medical efficiency. However when we look at medicine from the standpoint of someone directly involved, we find irreplaceability of life.

Science from the position of an onlooker has matured independently in spite of many problems. But science from the position of someone directly involved has not even taken shape yet. This new kind of science is to be found where ethical problems of medicine are being formed, like none other than those discussed throughout this book. Science from the position from an onlooker was formed in modern Europe, with astronomy at its heart; staring up at (looking on) the distant stars in the night sky from the earth. Modern medicine is medicine that has adopted this into its essence. Science from the position of those directly involved will probably be formed with modern medicine at its heart, after many people have been forced to become directly involved through matters of life and death. It will become science that constantly focuses on irreplaceability from the standpoint of someone directly involved. I think this idea will, in places of medical treatment, slowly germinate between people who perform nursing care of 'irreplaceable' life."

Source:
International Network for Life Studies