The Problem of Personal Identity In the essay written by John Perry called “Will Tommy Vladek Survive?” Perry presents a very controversial topic. In this story Tommy Vladek is considered brain dead but his body is still totally functional. There is another child in the story who has had an accident, and his body is completely destroyed. The child’s body that is completely destroyed still has perfect brain function, and the doctors can put …showed first 75 words of 1741 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1741 total…that he won’t be brining Tommy home. Perry is not certain in his essay if Tommy or Sam will survive. However Parry is confident that the memory theory can be successfully defended, and therefore states that Tommy will not survive the operation. And the injured child Sam will survive, in the sense that all of the same memories will still be present. The only difference is that Sam will have a completely different body.