Brain death has been accepted worldwide medically and legally as the biological state of
death of the organism. Nevertheless, the literature has described persistent problems with …

A remarkable consensus, bordering on unanimity, exists among the world's medical and
legal experts on the definition of death. It says that death, in man, consists of the irreversible …

At its inception,“brain death” was proposed not as a coherent concept but as a useful one.
The 1968 Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of …

Controversies about the diagnosis and meaning of brain death have existed as long as the
concept itself. Here we review the historical development of brain death, and then evaluate …

While there is increasing pressure on scarce health care resources, advances in medical
science have blurred the boundary between life and death. Individuals can survive for …

The whole brain-death criterion of death now enjoys a wide acceptance both within the
medical profession and among the general public. That acceptance is in large part the …

Brain death is accepted in most countries as death. The rationales to explain why brain
death is death are surprisingly problematic. The standard rationale that in brain death there …

BRAIN DEATH IS DEFINED AS THE COMPLETE AND IRREVERSIBLE absence of all brain
function. It is diagnosed by means of rigorous testing at the bedside. The advent of …

Definitions of death are based on subjective standards, priorities, and social conventions
rather than on objective facts about the state of human physiology. It is the meaning …

In the early days of the Karen Ann Quinlan case it was suggested by some not closely
involved in the case that she was dead according to a new definition of death. 1-3 Those …