ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that death of the brainstem provides both a necessary and a sufficient definition of the death of a human being, in that it provides a physiological substratum for the ‘irreversible loss of function of the organism as a whole’. It suggests that the brain as a whole is dead when a critical mass of neurons is destroyed. Criteria for the diagnosis of brain death are being continually refined by clinical and experimental research. The concept of brain death emerged in France in 1959. Since then hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients throughout the world have been diagnosed as brain dead, maintained on ventilators and observed until their hearts stopped. A diagnosis of brain death must never be confused with concerns about the quality of residual life in vegetative states.
