“Lil’ Bing! What are you doing?!”

“Dad! Don’t stop her. She said that brain death isn’t the same as death where she came from!”

“What?!”

I removed my mom’s breathing tube. Then, I placed a miniature ventilator where it used to be. The ventilator adhered to the skin and began twinkling with white light as it activated its breathing assistance mode. A thin fiber moved toward her heart to replace Earth’s life support systems and keep her heart beating.  

As she was brain dead, all the equipment in the room was only to maintain her heartbeat and other vital signs. After removing it, those signs would disappear slowly. Her heartbeat would stop, her blood would...