1. IntroductionThe brain is made up of many different parts that help it function in daily life; parts such as the brain that control voluntary movement and regulate functions such as thinking, speech and the ability to remember information. The cerebellum controls balance and coordination and finally the brainstem, made up of the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord, which controls all involuntary functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. The brainstem is capable of performing these actions even when someone is sleeping. To fully understand how crucial the brain is to survival it is necessary to understand the functions of the brainstem. Brain death occurs when brain cells, which cannot regenerate, are injured or die. This causes brain death as the brain becomes starved of oxygen. One can only be declared brain dead by a neurologist and even then a number of criteria must be met, some of these include; insensitivity to stimuli; absence of reflexes and inability to breathe without the aid of a machine (Goila and Pawar, 2009). At this point a ventilator is placed. A ventilator is a machine that keeps the circulation of blood, oxygen and nutrients to the body's organs. Putting a patient on life support is very expensive for the patient's family and also for the hospital. Once a person is brain dead they are said to be legally dead and the time and date of death are listed on their death certificate. In South Africa it is not established that doctors can withdraw life support once a patient is declared brain dead due to ethical debates (Fleischer, 2003). There have been some cases where people have been declared brain dead but then regained some brain activity (Greenberg, 2014). This h... middle of paper... deserves to be buried. Retrieved 2014 from sundial.csun.edu: http://sundial.csun.edu/2014/01/brain-dead-patients-deserve-to-be-laid-to-rest/Pawar, A. K. (2009). the diagnosis of brain death. Retrieved January 29, 2014, from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2772257/ unknown. (2013). Frequently asked questions. Retrieved 2014 from odf.org.za: https://www.odf.org.za/2013-06-11-09-17-45/faq.html unknown. (2011, October 27). inside the human brain. Retrieved January 19, 2014, from nia.nih.gov: http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/part-1-basics-healthy-brain/inside-human-brain Unknown. (2014). what is life support. Retrieved 2014 from Wisegeek.org: http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-life-support.htmWickline, S. (2014). A brain dead mother, a million dollar baby. Retrieved 2014 from medpagetoday.com: http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/43736