AAP FACTCHECK – The brain cells of ‘brain-dead’ patients have stopped functioning permanently and they rely on life-support equipment to keep their heart and lungs operating, despite claims circulating on social media that the condition is a fiction.
It’s being claimed in a Facebook video that brain death is “a lie” because patients are still able to breathe and their hearts are still beating.
However, this is only because of the assistance of a life-support machine. Brain death is irreversible and once life support is turned off, the body will not survive.
The video features neonatologist Paul Byrne, who claims brain death is a made-up medical condition – mainly invented so organs can be harvested – because the patient still has a heartbeat and is alive.
“Brain death is a lie. So, people don’t even realise it’s a lie anymore. But it’s been a lie from the beginning, continues to be a lie,” Dr Byrne says in the video.
“They invented brain death mainly to get organs, but then also so they don’t waste money on treating people who aren’t ever going to get a job, who are just going to live and not die.
“Everybody who’s called brain dead has a beating heart, circulation and respiration. If they didn’t have that, wouldn’t have to call them brain-dead. You would call them dead.”
Dr Byrne has previously written about his theory that brain death “is a planned falseness to intrude on the life of the person in order to do the evil of murder by organ transplantation”.
The National Health and Medical Research Council says (page 2) brain death means a patient has died because all brain function has stopped permanently, even though the heart may keep beating.
Likewise, the UK’s National Health Service says brain death, also known as brain stem death, is when a person on artificial life support no longer has any brain function.
The brain stem is what allows you to do things like breathe, regulate your heart rate and swallow on your own.
Once the brain stem has permanently stopped functioning, the NHS says, the heart will eventually stop beating, even if a ventilator is used.
A brain dead person has irreversible loss of brain function and is considered dead under UK law.
AAP FactCheck spoke to Cassandra Szoeke, a consultant neurologist, who also said Dr Byrne’s claim is incorrect.
Professor Szoeke said brain death occurs when brain cells and brain stem reflexes are no longer functioning and a person is only surviving because of life support.
This is different from a coma, where the patient is unconscious but still has functioning brain cells, can breathe independently, and can regain consciousness.
She said two doctors need to independently verify specific criteria to diagnose brain death.
“You would have to be in a coma, for starters, so completely unconscious. You would have to have no brain stem [activity].”
Prof Szoeke said doctors perform multiple tests and scans to make sure a brain-dead patient has no functioning brain cells and cannot regain consciousness or survive without a life-support machine.
“We have to demonstrate that those brain cells are really just not functioning in any capacity and that’s called brain death, and that’s irreversible. You can’t come back from that.”
The reason we have a definition of brain death, Prof Szoeke added, is because we can keep bodies alive with life-support machines that pump oxygen and keep hearts pumping and blood circulating, which means we need a new definition of death.
The NHS also acknowledges that confirming death has become more complex today because of the ability to keep the heart beating after the brain stem has permanently stopped functioning.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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