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![]() post Buffy s3 A lot of people, including myself, took it for granted that vampires are dead. It's not something you tend to think about, but a recent question about an entirely different subject brought the issue under closer scrutiny. I have approached this question in two parts: the first, an obvious evaluation of whether or not a vampire is dead, legally and medically, the second, well we'll come to that...
Are vampires legally and medically dead? I know that lawyers do not tend to agree with the rest of the world when it comes to definitions but in this case the standard for both is accepted as the same. Below is an extract from a medical law textbook by Michael Davies:
Definition of death ... As a starting point it is worth turning again to Pallis (C. Pallis, author of ABC of Brain Stem Death (London: British Medical Journal)) for an initial optional definition: "I conceive of human death as a state in which there is irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness combined with irreversible loss of the capacity to breathe (and hence to maintain a heartbeat). Alone, neither would be sufficient." This raises the issue of vampire breath, can they breathe or can't they? If they can, do they have to? Needless to say there is some disagreement on the subject. Can vampires breathe? It's pretty obvious that they can breathe if they choose, Spike manages to smoke in School Hard, Becoming and probably Lover's Walk as well, and, let's be perfectly frank here, their chests keep moving up and down, especially Angel's whenever he's around Buffy for some reason. If that's not breathing then I don't know what is. So what about the declarations to the contrary? Angel "It's not like I need the oxygen." in Invisible Girl - it is hard to believe that vampires do not need oxygen at all, since oxygen is required for the process of respiration which is the only means we have of creating the energy to move our muscles, unless vampires have some sort of 'mystical internal battery' that keeps them going. Perhaps he doesn't need the oxygen from the air (just as fish can't breathe the oxygen out of the air), perhaps as Masquerade suggests they get from the oxygenated blood they drink (a very good reason to drink from the carotid artery rather than the jugular vein), though if this was the case they would have to be incredible efficient with its use. We use gallons of the stuff and we're far less powerful that they appear to be. Spike "actually, I don't breathe" - yes, right, so how do you smoke Spike? Perhaps this can be explained as follows: vampires can obviously raise and lower their chests, creating a pressure difference that blows air into their lungs and the out again, hence Spike's ability to smoke, most people would see this as breathing. However, because they have no heartbeat they have no circulation, therefore the blood in his pulmonary (the one that goes round the lungs) vein does not absorb any of the oxygen that enters his lungs as it is already saturated, therefore Spike does not get any benefit from breathing.
Interview with Joss Whedon
Amy: Why does Angel always get out of breath when he's "suffering," but it's repeatedly said on the shows that vampires don't breathe?
re: the trees. Does he mean
oxygen or carbon dioxide? Because trees and all plant life uses both to
grow (as they both photosynthesise and respire). And Angel only needs to breathe out oxygen to do CPR which is in the
air anyway. So is Joss saying that vampires somehow filter the oxygen out
of the air when they breathe it?
Still we need not concern ourselves with it too much as the vampires capacity for conscious thought is obvious, making them alive by this definition whether they breathe or not. Back to Davies: This dual idea of death combines absence of cognition and absence of respiration. Combined with these two is the unifying matter of the brain stem. This is they key part of the triangle of biological and cognitive existence. The heart and the lungs as a team supply oxygen to the brain, therefore the brain cannot function without the operation of the heart and the lungs. Respiration itself is controlled by the brain stem, which in general terms performs the basic or 'vegetative' functions. For present purposes the significance of modern medical technology is that for the activities of the heart and the lungs can be artificially maintained, but not those of the brain stem. If the brain stem has irreversibly ceased to function then there can never be (as technology currently stands) spontaneous heartbeat or respiration, and this has long been the popular conception that death has occurred. There is further significance in the focus being on the functioning of the brain stem. The cerebral hemispheres of the brain control thought, feelings and the ability to rationalise. These are only activated by the functioning brain stem. ... Essentially what Davies is saying is that without the brain stem then the patient would never be able to breathe, or have a heartbeat or think, feel or rationalize of his own accord ever again. Given that vampires can breathe on their own instigation, and given that they can certainly think it is patent that their brainstem is still operating, because without it, they wouldn't be able to do any of these things, even if the demon essence inside them told the body to. Later Davies goes on to consider other potential definitions, including this one which I thought of particular relevance: An argument which has symmetry with concepts of the start of life is that the definition of death can be predicated on the theory of the desoulment of the spiritual individual. As it has been argued that human life beings when the soul enters the body, so life has ended when the soul departs. That this may be vague and prone to determination dependent on the particular strand of religious conviction may weaken it in the eyes of those who do not share the particular conviction Under this definition, then perhaps vampires are dead, the human soul has left, however let's head onto the definition that is actually used in England, which is one which relies on brainstem death, the tests required to determine that the brain stem had irreversibly ceased to function were enunciated in R v Malcherek [1981]. An example of the brainstem test The important modern case of Re A (1992), ... is an indication of the current scope of the test that takes place on the relatively rare occasions when it is necessary to perform it. A child was placed on a ventilator having arrived at a hospital not breathing. Having noted some gasping activity when turning off the ventilator for a sample period, the nest day the doctor carried out the following tests detailed in the judgement of Johnson J:
A's pupils were fixed and dilated. On movement of the head his eyes moved with his head. What is called the 'doll's eyes' response was absent. On his eye being touched with a piece of cotton wool there was no response. On cold water being passed into his ear there was no eye movement in response. On steps being taken, in effect to cause him to 'gag' there was no reflex reaction, neither was there reaction to pain being applied to his central nervous system. Finally, on his temporary removal from the ventilator to enable the carbon dioxide level of his body to increase there was no respiratory response... The consultant was satisfied that A was brain stem dead.
If you did the above to a vampire I have an inking he'd let you know. Even Angel, when you started pouring water in his ear, might interrupt you with a polite cough. So it seems that vampires aren't dead after all, to which the more intelligent among you would cry "We knew that all along, that's why they're called undead!" But the law makes no allowance for the undead, you're either alive or you're not, in which case you're dead. So what are the legal effects? To answer that question, we first have to answer another: during their creation, is a vampire ever dead? Is a vampire dead at any point? Consider this: if the body dies (i.e. is medically dead) at any point in the creation of the vampire, then the legal entity that that person was is extinguished. It no longer exists and what is left is, for all legal purposes, is an animated corpse, no matter what neural redecoration the demon decides on when he moves in. If the body does not medically die at any point in the creation of the vampire, then the legal entity continues. The law draws no difference between a body and a soul, so the vampire has the same legal rights, duties and responsibilities as the human he replaced. The same duty to obey the laws, the same right to life, even the same contractual rights as to his employment and welfare benefits (now that would be a scary queue outside the social security office). It also affects how Buffy should treat them. If the body dies during the vamping then there is no legal need for Buffy to justify her slaying of any of them. The legal human, which is what the laws protect, will already be dead. Vampires will just be animated corpses, they may be alive under the medical definition but the rights of their 'host' will no longer exist, an entirely new set of rights have been come into being over the host's property, even over the body itself, as soon as the body was medically dead. (I should make myself clear here, I am not saying that someone whose heart stops beating, such as Buffy's did in Prophecy Girl, wakes up with no legal rights, just so long as they still have their brainstem, they're fine.) But if the vampires don't die in their creation, then Buffy has to justify her punishment under one or more of these five headings and, more than that, it must be shown to be proportional. So Buffy might not be justified in staking every vampire that crossed her path, just as the police would not be justified in arresting anyone they happened across. She would have to have some sort of reasonable belief that the vampire had done something (such as attacking someone or even attempting to attack someone) that invalidated the rights of their host, because she should not be allowed to destroy someone merely because of what they are, that would be akin to treating them as animals, which would be fine if they had died and had no rights, but not if life had continued. Go to Masquerade's Vampire Physiology
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