Surveying brain death from the perspectives of jurisprudence and criminal law

Rahmati, Mohammad; Farahzadi, Ali Akbar

Volume 4, Issue 2 (4-2011) IJMEHM 2011, 4(2): 23-33 | Back to browse issues page

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Rahmati M, Farahzadi A A. Surveying brain death from the perspectives of jurisprudence and criminal law. IJMEHM 2011; 4 (2) :23-33
URL: http://ijme.tums.ac.ir/article-1-5049-en.html

Surveying brain death from the perspectives of jurisprudence and criminal law

Mohammad Rahmati

, Ali Akbar Farahzadi ^*

Abstract: (14691 Views)

Brain death is a subject in our society which can be mistaken with coma or other types of life status similar to death. To assess the legal status of a brain dead patient, it is necessary to determine whether a person afflicted with brain death is dead or alive. Do they meet the criteria for biological death? Or in precise words, do Islamic laws for the dead apply to them? Several questions arise in this regard, which give more importance to this issue from the viewpoint of Islamic jurisprudence and law, and all answers depend on our definition of brain death, and whether we find brain death an instance of the separation of body from soul. There has been much research around this issue and the laws in many countries and religions, including Christianity and Judaism, have been disambiguated. In Iran, however, brain dead patients are considered alive, while brain death should be legally considered absolute death like in many medically advanced countries (UK, Germany, France, and USA). The authors aim at examining this issue from the viewpoint of Fiqh and law, and its disambiguation.

Keywords: brain death, absolute death, stable and unstable life, biological death

Full-Text [PDF 158 kb] (3362 Downloads)

Type of Study: Review | Subject: Bioethics
Received: 2013/06/16 | Accepted: 2013/06/22 | Published: 2013/06/22