The Concept of Brain Death

Abstract

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.