A plea for the heart.

Martyn Evans believes that it is a 'shocking feature' of brain-centred conceptions of death that they require us to regard as dead a person whose heart may continue to beat spontaneously. When it comes to neocortical conceptions of death, we might even be burying or cremating a 'breathing corpse'. If proponents of neocortical definitions of death suggest active interventions to stop the remaining spontaneous functions, in what sense, asks Evans, is this different from killing? Also, does it make sense to accept, as many proponents of brain-centred conceptions of death do, that it is proper to 'explant' organs from 'beating-heart cadavers', whilst squirming at the thought of cremating a 'breathing corpse'?