There Are Some Things That Are Worse Than Death

New research about “partly alive brains” should give all of us pause

The research results came out with great fanfare: scientists were able to restore dead pig brains to some cellular function, rendering them “partly alive.” I weighed in on the results myself, wondering if this research could one day lead to preventing brain death.

The path to this research was eloquently described in a recent NY Times Magazine article. The work was hard and tenacious, and the implications of this research are truly groundbreaking. If brain injured patients can be treated with this infusion and have further injury be prevented, this could not only save lives, but transform them.

That is because brain injury is devastating. Whether the brain gets injured from a lack of oxygen (which only takes about 5 minutes or so to start to injure brain cells), or severe trauma, or bleeding, once the brain gets damaged, much of that damage is permanent, frequently leaving the patient with severe disabilities. Damage the brain too much, and it can lead to brain death, or as we doctors call it, “death by neurologic criteria.”

I have seen— and had to declare a patient “brain dead” — all too often, and it leaves families shocked and heartbroken. That’s because, many times, they…