Beyond Brain Death

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

   PDF

2. Introduction: Beyond Brain Death

   • Michael Potts, Paul A. Byrne, Richard G. Nilges

   Pages 1-20

3. Brain Death—the Patient, the Physician, and Society

   • Paul A. Byrne, Sean O’Reilly, Paul M. Quay, Peter W. Salsich Jr.

   Pages 21-89

4. Metaphysical Misgivings about “Brain Death”

   • David Albert Jones

   Pages 91-119

5. Pro-Life Support of the Whole Brain Death Criterion: A Problem of Consistency

   • Michael Potts

   Pages 121-138

6. The Demise of “Brain Death” in Britain

   • David W. Evans

   Pages 139-158

7. Brain Stem Death: A United Kingdom Anaesthetist’s View

   • David J. Hill

   Pages 159-169

8. Brain Death and Cardiac Transplantation: Historical Background and Unsettled Controversies in Japan

   • Yoshio Watanabe

   Pages 171-190

9. Philosophical and Cultural Attitudes Against Brain Death and Organ Transplantation in Japan

   • Tomoko Aabe

   Pages 191-199

10. Brain Death and Euthanasia

    • Josef Seifert

    Pages 201-227

11. The Moment of Death and the Morally Safer Path

    • Mark Haverland

    Pages 229-235

12. A Narrative Case Against Brain Death

    • Martyn Evans, Michael Potts

    Pages 237-247

13. Organ Transplantation, Brain Death and the Slippery Slope: A Neurosurgeon’s Perspective

    • Richard G. Nilges

    Pages 249-258

14. Back Matter

    Pages 259-273

    PDF

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.

• Ethics
• bioethics
• death
• health
• morality
• transplantation

`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)

• Methodist College, Fayetteville, USA

  Michael Potts

• St. Charles Hospital, Oregon, USA

  Paul A. Byrne

• Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago, USA

  Richard G. Nilges

Policies and ethics