The Definition of Death: Contemporary Controversies

Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title

The Definition of Death: Contemporary Controversies is the first comprehensive review of the clinical, philosophical, and public policy implications of our effort to redefine the change in status from living person to corpse. It is the result of a collaboration among internationally recognized scholars from the fields of medicine, philosophy, social science, law, and religious studies. Throughout, the contributors struggle to reconcile inconsistencies and gaps in our traditional understanding of death and to respond to the public’s concern that, in the determination of death under current policies, patients’ interests may be compromised by the demand for organ retrieval.

Stuart J. Youngner, M.D., is the Susan E. Watson Professor of Bioethics and chairman of the Department of Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University. Robert M. Arnold, M.D., is a professor of medicine, the director of the Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics, and the Dr. Leo H. Criep Chair in Patient Care at the University of Pittsburgh. Renie Schapiro, M.P.H., is a consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a freelance writer and editor in Madison, Wisconsin.