ABSTRACT
In 1968 the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMW) set up a committee to define the criteria for diagnosing death and brain death. At one of this committee's last meetings a general debate ensued about the potential recovery of dying patients and the difficulties involved in grasping the different aspects of the process of dying. Those members, who had at one time vehemently argued in favour of the evidence and certainty of brain death, stressing their professional competency to confirm death properly, suddenly began to highlight the doubts and uncertainties associated with diagnosing death in general. Every one of them came up with a story about a patient who, after having been pronounced dead, had returned to life. The transplant surgeon who had initiated the SAMW committee and who later performed the first Swiss heart transplant, emphasized: “We can't demand that every single physician always makes the correct diagnosis…. As sad as it is, we will always have and always have to have doubts.” 2
