the notion of brain death

i once read an article debating over the controversial issue of brain death...

According to official documents, brain death is the legal definition of death, comprising of the cessation of electrical activity in a human's brain. However, that does not mean the cessation of the activities occurring in the heart. Blood continues to flow to the heart and have it pumping and it often seems as though the human is "alive" if we should define heart beats as "life!"

Which left me thinking about the importance of the brain in a human's body. No doubt the brain is the main organ in the human body which controls all the body functions. Hence it would be futile to debate on the importance of the human brain. The heart and the brain work hand in hand to have the whole body system running. However this coordination is terminated when brain death occurs, living the red organ to continue its mission of keeping the body "alive".

And then it has to be decided upon if a person is actually dead if he is suffering from brain death which however theoretically and legally, he is actually officially dead in legal medical documents. Yet I hate to think that the heart has lost its mission to keep the body alive. That no matter how hard it has resisted the opposition of the brain which has since lost its willpower to continue its mission, the outcome more often than not left controversial and saddening decisions. That the families of the victim would have to decide between life support and organ donation which I think is a pretty sensitive subject that i probably will not be able to end the debate here.

and i had to come to the conclusion that the brain is the most powerful "tool" created. Without its existence, the heart would not be able to function alone. And I would add that neither can the brain continue to keep the body functioning should the heart fail. I can simply end the story by concluding a human "life" to that of the correlation between the two organs. But I refuse.

There is this little tinge of uncertainty that lies within. How about the state of coma? There is still hope that the victim may wake up and escape "death" having being previously declared brain death and living on life support....

at this point of time, the heart refuses to admit defeat even after having known that the brain has already given up. in some cases, the heart managed to "win over" the brain, to bring it back alive! this is the hope that the families of their loved one are waiting for.

which at some point of time left me pondering over if it is "the brain that rules the heart" or "the heart that rules the brain" .........