Transplantations: A solution or a problem?

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleΜεταμοσχεύσεις: Λύση ἢ πρόβλημα;
3. Language term English
4. lemma author Koutalis, Vangelis
5. lemma category Ethics - Modes of interaction > Conflict - Scientific theories and disciplines > Medicine - Orthodox Anthropology
6. Publication date 05-01-2018
7. lemma work Kyprianos, Christodoulides [Author]. Transplantations: A solution or a problem?
8. lemma manifestations Μεταμοσχεύσεις: Λύση ἢ πρόβλημα; - Athens: “Hypakoe” Editions, 1995.
9. Keywords transplantations - cerebral death - cerebral death - death - Life
10. Citations
    1. <p>Kyprianos, C. [Κυπριανός, Χ.] (1995). <em>Μεταμοσχεύσεις: Λύση ἢ πρόβλημα;</em>. Athens: “Hypakoe” Editions.</p>
11. Lemma body

    1. In this collection of short articles, the author puts under question the grounds on which organ transplantations are legitimized and morally justified. The principal question here tackled is that concerning the relation between ‘brain death’, the loss of brain function, and death itself. According to the author, the current debates with regard to the usefulness and moral legitimacy of organ transplantations are dominated by a seriously flawed assumption: the equation of brain failure with the death of a human being.

       Whereas in the past, the cessation of the heart was the scientific criterion for distinguishing between the condition of death and that of life, today the neologism ‘brain death’, denoting the situation in which brain functions are irreversibly damaged, has been introduced as the sole yardstick to determine when a person should be declared dead. Through this unwarranted shift, which is guided by economical interests and uncritically sanctioned by the mainstream media, euthanasia, mercy killing, is being, surreptitiously, legitimized.

       The persons whose brains are irreversibly ceased functioning are still living persons, severely ill, but nonetheless living. Furthermore, suffering irreversible brain damage does not amount to suffering a total loss of consciousness, since consciousness is primarily a subjective experience, rather than an objective fact. Neither does it mean that the soul has been separated from the body. The question of when life ends and when death starts is not simply a scientific question, but a moral one too. Scientific findings, which are always tentative and constantly changing, cannot be used as objective criteria for moral choices. It is in the writings of the Church Fathers, instead, according to the author, that such criteria should be sought after.