title: [Machines and arguments: from life support technologies to the definition of brain death].
abstract: The article analyzes academic production about the debate surrounding the definition of brain death, based on bibliographic and documental research of international medical periodicals in the 1960s. The development and adoption of life support technologies during the twentieth century sparked a heated debate that sought to legitimize new procedures like organ transplants. As its practices changed, medical science set about inventing new knowledge about these practices. Discussions as to the definition of brain death turned it into a 'black box', dismantled by anthropological studies into the topic starting in 1980s. The present article explores the deconstruction of brain death as a black box.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil. lukind@gmail.com
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kind
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation; D012068:Religion and Medicine