ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Taphophobia, Organ Donation, American Jews
8 Jan 2019
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How do we define death: traditional medical view, lack of respiration, pulse and heartbeat, failure to respond to stimuli, lowered body temperature. The harvard criteria of death: unreceptive and unresponsive, no spontaneous movement or respiration, no reflexes, a flat eeg (electrical activity in the brain, no circulation to or within the brain. Us, although it is widely thought among american jews that organ donation is not allowed by jewish law. Japan has been resistant to embracing organ transportation for cadavers, although kidney transplants from living donors is allowed and frequently performed: the first heart transplant attempt resulted in the surgeon being tried for murder. Japanese are restrictive in terms of having brain death legally declared. Taphophobia: the fear of being buried alive. In the past, a rope was tied to the hands of the coffin occupant so that if they were not really dead, they could pull the rope, which rang a bell above ground.
