Lessons from 'Living Cadavers'

(Credit: Photographee.eu/Shutterstock) The dead, the headlines read, might soon be brought back to life. As pop-science headlines tend to, they blew the actual research proposal out of proportion, but the premise is real: The ReAnima Project recently received “ethical permission” from the government of India to take 20 patients who’ve been declared clinically brain dead, and try to restore a limited range of brain functions using cutting-edge neuroscience techniques. When we get past the knee-jerk references to zombies and Dr. Frankenstein, though, we’re left with the question of what this research is really about. Can scientists actually bring brain-dead patients back to life? Has anyone tried it before? And what does it mean, exactly, to resurrect a brain dead person? The answers to these questions reveal some surprising truths — not only about the frontiers of modern neuroscience, but also about our relationships with our dead and dying loved ones, and the ways we choose to define what a living human being is. As it turns out, "dead" people do tell tales.