ABSTRACT
When Bland v Airedale NHS Trust came to the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Hoffmann approached the ethical issue as matters not simply of legal jurisdiction but of a broader, widespread debate. Lord Justice Hoffmann's dilemma rests upon the difficulty of balancing competing principles relating to human life and its termination. The case of Tony Bland raises questions about how people relate personhood and the biological aliveness of a human being. Professor Fred Feldman's thesis reveals the awkwardness of biological and psychological theories of death, and his analysis demonstrates the inadequacy of biological categories to arrive at a satisfactory philosophical definition of death. The implication for Christian theology is that metaphysical inquiry is essential to its understanding of death. Within the Christian tradition the overwhelming consensus about the nature of death is that it is the separation of the soul from the body.
