問題詳情

V. ReadingQuestions 41-45: Choose the BEST answer to each question below according to what isstated and implied in the following passage.The discovery of a recent research published in Nature shows that although electrophysiologicalmonitoring could not detect any neural activity that reflects consciousness in mammalian brains, itdid pick up cellular functions hours after death. In this study, researchers obtained dead pigs from astate-run slaughterhouse; they then connected 32 dead pigs to an artificial perfusion system calledBrainEx. The brains of these pigs were removed from the skulls. As a result, these dead pigs wouldnot have the ability to perceive the environment and experience sensations such as pain. But,incredibly, BrainEx—a computerized system utilized to control the blood flow, temperature, andperfusion, was capable of restoring circulation to major arteries and small blood vessels in pig brains.Notably, a drug used to enhance the blood flow in people’s brain also successfully dilated pig bloodvessels. Electrodes inserted into pig brain tissues even detected activities between and among cells.Findings of this research raise challenges to a long-standing assumption that brains will beirrevocably damaged soon after blood stops circulation. Importantly, the discovery of this researchexacerbates the tug-of-war between the effort to salvage a person’s life and the endeavors to removeand implant the organs in another body. Typically, practitioners use various rules of thumb, such as“declare death after 30 minutes of unsuccessful resuscitative efforts”, as the reference point for deathdetermination and for switching from life-saving effort to “organ-saving” effort (for transplantationpurposes). But the aforementioned rules of thumb have not been clear-cut. In most countries, mostorgans for transplant have been extracted from people who have been pronounced brain dead;however, recently, more and more people who are declared dead after their heart and lungs havestopped working (circulatory death) are also eligible for organ donation. Apparently, the standards fordeath determination and organ transplantation are still not unequivocally accepted by clinicians.The debate on life and death will continue. Despite the lack of consensus, the transplantcommunity, scientists, and medical professionals and other stakeholders generally agree thatindisputable, unambiguous transplantation guidelines that can help protect the interests of individualsfor whom recovery is a possibility and the interests of potential organ recipients are warranted. Suchtransplantation guidelines will help medical professionals to make indisputable decisions on thetiming to switch from saving someone’s life to saving their organs for the benefit of another person.In any case, this decision on “life and death” should not come down to a moral decision.In addition, medical professionals should also make joint effort to optimize the resuscitationtechnology. If such a technology gets improved, people who are pronounced brain dead may becomecandidates for brain resuscitation, rather than candidates for organ transportation. In this regard, itwould be harder for families to accept that further resuscitative intervention performed on their loveones is futile. In our view, as the science of brain resuscitation progresses, the decisions to revivepatients from unconsciousness or apparent death might increasingly become more reasonable; andthe decisions to give up resuscitation in favor of transplanting organs might seem less so.
41. What’s the primary objective of this passage?
(A) It revisits the outdated regulations on the general medical ethics for clinicians.
(B) It examines the dilemma between futile resuscitative efforts and patients’ free will.
(C) It highlights an increasingly heightened tension between potential organ donors andmedical practitioners.
(D) It presents a skeptical view on the advances in electrophysiological science.
(E) It discusses the controversies regarding death determination and organ transplantation.

參考答案

答案：E
難度：簡單0.833333
統計：A(0),B(2),C(0),D(0),E(10)

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