Beyond Brain Death

Beyond Brain Death offers a provocative challenge to one of the most widely accepted conclusions of contemporary bioethics: the position that brain death marks the death of the human person. Eleven chapters by physicians, philosophers, and theologians present the case against brain-based criteria for human death. Each author believes that this position calls into question the moral acceptability of the transplantation of unpaired vital organs from brain-dead patients who have continuing function of the circulatory system. One strength of the book is its international approach to the question: contributors are from the United States, the United Kingdom, Liechtenstein, and Japan. This book will appeal to a wide audience, including physicians and other health care professionals, philosophers, theologians, medical sociologists, and social workers.

Introduction: Beyond Brain Death. - Brain Death the Patient, the Physician, and Society. - Metaphysical Misgivings about Brain Death . - Pro-Life Support of the Whole Brain Death Criterion: A Problem of Consistency. - The Demise of Brain Death in Britain. - Brain Stem Death: A United Kingdom Anaesthetist s View. - Brain Death and Cardiac Transplantation: Historical Background and Unsettled Controversies in Japan. - Philosophical and Cultural Attitudes Against Brain Death and Organ Transplantation in Japan. - Brain Death and Euthanasia. - The Moment of Death and the Morally Safer Path. - A Narrative Case Against Brain Death. - Organ Transplantation, Brain Death and the Slippery Slope: A Neurosurgeon s Perspective.