Definition and Criteria of Death in Modern Medicine

1. The Establishment of the Biological Paradigm of Death

Abstract

This study analyzes the emergence and consolidation of the biological paradigm of death in modern medicine. It traces the development from the traditional cardiopulmonary criterion to the 1968 Harvard report and the subsequent formulation of death as the irreversible cessation of the functioning of the organism as a whole. The paper systematically distinguishes between the definition of death, its criteria, and empirical tests, demonstrating how initial conceptual ambiguities generated legal and interpretative difficulties. Particular attention is devoted to Alan Shewmon’s critique of the brain as the integrative organ of the organism and to responses offered by proponents of the neurological criterion, especially James Bernat and the 2008 President’s Council on Bioethics. The study shows that the debate over brain death is not merely medical but fundamentally philosophical, as it concerns the very concept of a living organism. The analysis provides the historical and conceptual groundwork for a subsequent critical evaluation of the validity of the neurological criterion of death.