Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

IS THE BRAIN-DEAD PATIENT REALLY DEAD? 279lenge and show that it is incoherent and incompatible with anauthentic Christian anthropology. His defense of the BD criteriawould allow too much because it is unable to distinguish thoseindividuals suffering from either whole-brain death, corticalbraindeath or the persistent vegetative state (PVS). Finally, asan alternative to brain-based criteria for death, I propose thatour understanding of death should involve a holistic perspectivethat looks at the destruction not of any single organ but of theentire integrated network that is the human body.Definitions, Criteria, and Tests for Death: PhilosophicalOverviewThe debate over the validity of different criteria for death isa complex one. As different scholars grappling with this issuehave pointed out, however, the dispute can be clarified by distinguishingthe three levels of discourse that are present in thearguments put forward by every side in the debate. 5First, every interlocutor in the debate has a definition ofdeath. This involves the conceptual basis underlying that individual’sunderstanding of death. Three dominant categories ofdefinitions for death exist in the BD literature: 61. Biological definitions: Basically, death involves the loss of thephysiological integrative unity of the body. This definition isspecies-nonspecific and corresponds to the ordinary understandingof “death.” This is also the mainstream rationalefor brain death in both secular 7 and Catholic circles includ-5James L. BERNAT, Charles M. CULVER, and Bernard GERT, “On theDefinition and Criterion of Death,” Annals of Internal medicine 94 (1981):389-394. Also see Karen GERVAIS, Redefining Death (New Haven, CT: YaleUniversity Press, 1986).6For discussion, see D. Alan SHEWMON, “The Brain and SomaticIntegration: Insights into the Standard Biological Rationale for Equating“Brain Death” With Death,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 26 (2001):457-478.7James L. BERNAT, “A Defense of the Whole-Brain Concept of Death,”Hastings Center Report 28 (1998): 14-23; and President’s Commission for the