ABSTRACT
Modern medicine is characterised by the continual introduction of new technologies and techniques for curing diseases, saving lives, or improving the quality of life. The "ambiguous body" refers to the fact that the braindead body is an intermediate bodily state between the dead and the alive body, a state constructed through life-sustaining systems and largely in response to the demand for organs. The concept of "corpse" suggests a stage farther away from humanness, since the corpse has already lost most of its agency and as such enjoys less deference than that shown towards a deceased person. Particular techniques and technological developments have led to shifts in the boundaries between living and dead and, in particular, the divergence of legal, clinical and everyday distinctions. The intermediate state disturbs established rituals and discourses for dealing with the dead, even among experienced medical personnel.
