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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.
List of contents
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.
Summary
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.
Additional text
`Beyond Brain Death is a Must read for all individuals, physicians and non-physicians alike. Some readers will enthusiastically endorse the opinions expressed in the book, others may question them and perhaps remain unconvinced, and still others will strongly disagree with them. However, it is virtually guaranteed that all readers will find this book one of the most provocative and controversial they have, or will ever, read. '
Chicago Medicine, 104:12 (2001)
Report
`Beyond Brain Death is a Must read for all individuals, physicians and non-physicians alike. Some readers will enthusiastically endorse the opinions expressed in the book, others may question them and perhaps remain unconvinced, and still others will strongly disagree with them. However, it is virtually guaranteed that all readers will find this book one of the most provocative and controversial they have, or will ever, read. '
Chicago Medicine, 104:12 (2001)
