• R F Araya.
• Servicio Médico Legal, Ministerio de Justicia, Santiago de Chile.
• Rev Med Chil. 1996 May 1; 124 (5): 605-12.

AbstractThe concept of brain death is still controversial. The Chilean case, as a result of a future transplantation law, seem to demonstrate this issue. The aim of this work is to contribute to the debate. A recent international polemic between metaphysic and pragmatic authors is approached, to establish bases to reject or accept the issue, after giving a brief history of the concept, from its medical origin to its transcendence to other areas as the law. The metaphysical rejection and the socio-cultural frame of the medical attitude that accepts brain death, are commented. It is concluded that the best defense of metaphysical point of view is the right to exclusion of minorities. Finally, brain death is criticized from a socio-cultural point of view of medical acts as a post-metaphysical concept of "useful death" and because of its relationship with "health production".

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