Beyond Brain Death : The Case Against Brain Based Criteria for Human 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.

`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)