The concept of brain death
(2004) Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology — Vol. 550, p. 15-21 (2004)
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- The first description of “coma dépassé” dates from 1959.1 Ten years later, it was followed by the introduction of the “Brain Death” (“BD”) concept. BD was considered as equivalent to individual human death.2 Since then, this concept gave rise to three partially overlapping, though qualitatively distinct, debates, which were well summarized by Bernat:3 a philosophical debate on the definition of death, a medico-philosophical debate on the identification of a measurable criterion of death, and a medical debate on the definition of which tests should be used to demonstrate that this criterion has been fulfilled. Actually, these debates are closely related to each other: the choice of medical tests depends on the criterion, and the choice of the criterion depends on which definition of death has been accepted.
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Guerit, J.-M. (2004). The concept of brain death. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 550, 15-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48526-8_2 (Original work published 2004)