The redefinition of death
pp. 177-197
in: Stuart Spicker (ed), Organism, medicine, and metaphysics, Berlin, Springer, 1978Abstract
In response to the report of the "Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death," Jonas included in his essay "Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects," a section dealing with the redefinition of death as "irreversible coma" ([5], pp. 105–131.) In this section, Jonas states what he later repeats in "Against the Stream: Comments on the Definition and Redefinition of Death," that he sees nothing wrong with allowing a patient in a coma which has been determined to be truly irreversible to die with dignity; that is, that he does not object to disconnecting the life-support systems that are maintaining the marginal life of such a patient. What he does oppose is pronouncing the patient "brain dead" and leaving him connected to the life-support systems so that the patient may become available for vivisection under a different designation.