title: Techno-thanatology: moral consequences of introducing brain criteria for death.
abstract: This paper is based on the hypothesis that the effort to establish new criteria for diagnosing human death, which has been taking place over the past twenty years or more, can be viewed as a paradigm case for the impact of scientific and technological progress on morality. This impact takes the form of three tendencies within the change in morality, which may be characterized as 'denaturalization', 'functionalization' and 'homogenization'. The paper concludes with the view that these tendencies do not indicate a decline of morality, as feared by some authors, but rather a structural change.
authors.affiliation: Institut für System- und Technologie Analysen, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bayertz
mesh_terms: D033421:Beginning of Human Life; D001675:Bioethics; D001926:Brain Death / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019369:Life; D008297:Male; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D013795:Thanatology; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D028761:Withholding Treatment