Death and irreversibility.
The concept of irreversibility plays a central role in most discussions of how to understand and determine human death. This seems to relativize death, since the possibilities of reversal will always depend on circumstance. I discuss the conceptual problems created by this fact, arguing that their seriousness depends on whether we take our conception of death to be a definition or criterion. Relativity is probably not fatal in a definition of death; it might even be desirable in a policy criterion. The concept of permanence is no less philosophically problematic in this context than irreversibility.
Department of Philosophy, Lund University, Kungshuset, Lundagård SE-222 22 Lund, Sweden. Dan.Egonsson@fil.lu.se
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D001926:Brain Death / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003643:Death; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D010686:Philosophy, Medical