The heart-lung machine is a medical device that mechanically assumes the pumping and ventilation function of the heart and lungs. In the case of irreversible loss of brain function, it is the central form of mechanical life support.
Its significance for the debate over personhood lies in the fact that it makes concrete the question of the relation between biological life and personhood: as long as the heart-lung machine sustains the bodily vital functions, the person lives — and where life is, there is personhood. The prote energeia (first actuality) remains untouched; what is affected is the deutera energeia (the exercise of function).
The heart-lung machine, as a subform of mechanical life support, is an interpersonal relation and is subject to the personalist norm: the decision about its deployment or its withdrawal concerns the right to life of a human person.
Ontological Classification
Superordinate concepts: mechanical life support, medical care, interpersonal relation
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: What Is Human Personhood? (German)
See also
- Irreversible Loss of Brain Function
- Mechanical Life Support
- Palliative Care
- Death
- Right to Life
- Personhood
Sources: Bexten 2017, pp. 195 ff. (personhood in the case of irreversible loss of brain function).