Both premortem and postmortem processes involve a surgery to access the circulatory system, and perfusion (pumping) of fluid chemicals through it.
In the BPF experiments, the premortem process involved cannulating the carotid arteries of a sedated and unconscious, but still living and breathing animal. In a MAiD postmortem process, lethal drugs are taken by the patient, and only after their heart stops and they are declared dead does any surgery begin. That’s why the rat experiment with Critch waited five minutes: to simulate the time it takes to do the surgery on a large mammal.
From a scientific perspective, the important difference is ischemia: in a premortem procedure, the heart and lungs are still active, and the brain is still receiving oxygen up until the time you start pumping chemicals through it. In a postmortem procedure, the heart/lungs have stopped, the brain is deprived of oxygen, and the clock is ticking on the cascade of failures that happen after death.
These make mechanical sense to me, but I am really more curious about the legal situation behind the decision to pursue the more difficult mechanical process. I suppose the crux of it is I am shocked that right-to-die laws were the pathway through, rather than the pathways made of medical cases where a person was in a coma, declared legally dead, and then woke up when they were unplugged. Or the right to undergo experimental surgeries. Or some law on the books from the space race ensuring it was legal to go into suspended animation so we could colonize another planet.
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Both premortem and postmortem processes involve a surgery to access the circulatory system, and perfusion (pumping) of fluid chemicals through it.
In the BPF experiments, the premortem process involved cannulating the carotid arteries of a sedated and unconscious, but still living and breathing animal. In a MAiD postmortem process, lethal drugs are taken by the patient, and only after their heart stops and they are declared dead does any surgery begin. That’s why the rat experiment with Critch waited five minutes: to simulate the time it takes to do the surgery on a large mammal.
From a scientific perspective, the important difference is ischemia: in a premortem procedure, the heart and lungs are still active, and the brain is still receiving oxygen up until the time you start pumping chemicals through it. In a postmortem procedure, the heart/lungs have stopped, the brain is deprived of oxygen, and the clock is ticking on the cascade of failures that happen after death.
These make mechanical sense to me, but I am really more curious about the legal situation behind the decision to pursue the more difficult mechanical process. I suppose the crux of it is I am shocked that right-to-die laws were the pathway through, rather than the pathways made of medical cases where a person was in a coma, declared legally dead, and then woke up when they were unplugged. Or the right to undergo experimental surgeries. Or some law on the books from the space race ensuring it was legal to go into suspended animation so we could colonize another planet.
Which I now suspect is, in fact, illegal.