Stephanie DeCross is a junior at Dartmouth College, where she double majors in psychology and linguistics and minors in education. Hailing from Rochester, NY, Stephanie enjoys the vibrant Jewish community at Dartmouth through her involvement with Hillel and experiences as a kindergarten Sunday School teacher. On campus, she also is an undergraduate advisor for freshmen, performs in several musical ensembles, and works in a cognitive affective neuroscience lab. Stephanie looks forward to sharing her work, learning from others, and further exploring her Judaism at the Sinai Scholars Symposium!
Stephanie's paper explores the legacy of Judaism regarding life as a gift of the utmost importance. Modern technological developments and medical knowledge now present the Jewish community with the phenomenon of brain stem death, requiring a reevaluation of Jewish beliefs towards this literally lifeor- death matter. Brain stem death stands in opposition with the presiding Jewish standard of death, the cessation of the heartbeat. With complete atrophy of the brain stem, the part of the brain that performs functions essential to sustaining life, there is no chance for natural recovery. It is a medically sound standard of death. Furthermore, Jewish conceptualizations of the soul, when interpreted in light of the neuroscientific evidence of brain functioning, are fully philosophically consistent with brain stem death. The soul, the intangible divine spark within us all, is said to express itself in several manifestations or levels. The highest level of the soul is neshama, said to inhabit the mind, and is connected with intellect and the conscious experience of spirituality. Its realm is higher level mental functioning, which cannot exist in the state of brain stem death. Stephanie argues that the soul cannot arbitrarily be split, and the loss of neshama signifies a loss of life. Not only is brain stem death a medically and philosophically acceptable standard of death, but formalizing its status also permits for the mitzvah of the highest order of saving a life via organ harvesting and matters involving triage and resource allocation. By persuasively analyzing and synthesizing irrefutable facts, compelling logic, and an interpretation of Judaism from a new angle, she demonstrates why brain stem death should become a halachically defined standard of death in modern day Judaism.
This presentation was delivered at the Sinai Scholars Academic Symposium 2012. The Sinai Scholars Symposium is a yearly conference for university students, hosted by the Sinai Scholars Society. Students from around the world gather with an esteemed panel of Ivy League professors, world-class Torah scholars and experts in their field to study, discuss and present their thoughts on various subjects that deal with Judaism and the modern world. Each student prepares an academic paper which they present to their colleagues and a panel of judges.
Paper: Brain Stem Death and Judaism
