Brain death is not death: a critique of the concept, criterion, and tests of brain death.
This paper suggests that there are insurmountable problems for brain death as a criterion of death. The following are argued: (1) brain death does not meet an accepted concept of death, and is not the loss of integration of the organism as a whole; (2) brain death does not meet the criterion of brain death itself; brain death is not the irreversible loss of all critical functions of the entire brain; and (3) brain death may, however rarely, be reversible. I conclude that brain death, while a devastating neurological state with a dismal prognosis, is not death.
University of Alberta, and Stollery Children's Hospital, Edmonton, AB, Canada. ajoffe@cha.ab.ca
Ari R
AR
Joffe
D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D003243:Consciousness; D003643:Death; D006801:Humans