The classic book that introduced "human relationship oriented analysis" instead of "brain-centered analysis," and fundamentally changed Japanese bioethics. Stimulating discussion especially to an English audience.

This book sold 20 thousand copies, and is one of the basics on contemporary Japanese ethics.

Commentaries
Robert D. Truog, MD - "I think your way of presenting these three categories and explaining the ... >> Read more

Summary
This book shifted the Japanese debate on brain death from "brain-centered analysis" to "human ... >> Read more

Chapter 1  Brain Death as a Form of Human Relationships

  Section 1   What Doctors May not Know
  Section 2   What is Brain Death for the Family?
  Section 3   The "Person" Whose Brain Stopped Functioning
  Section 4   The Condition of a "Brain Dead Person"
  Section 5   Are "Persons" Limited to Those Who are "Alive?"
  Section 6   Correlation Between People Around a Brain Dead Person

Chapter 2  What Kind of Place is an Intensive Care Unit?

  Section 1   Intensive Monitoring and Visiting Limitations in the ICU
  Section 2   The Integration of Compartmentalized Medical Treatment
  Section 3   The System of Supervision and Efficient Treatment
  Section 4   The Problem of a Brain Dead Person Occupying a Bed
  Section 5   Funding Treatment and Providing Iinsurance for Brain Dead People
  Section 6   What is the Best Way to Treat and Nurse a Brain Dead Person?
  Section 7   Medical Treatment that Centers around Care of the Sphere of Person to Person Relationships
  Section 8   Caring for Brain Dead People
  Section 9   Moving the Bed outside the ICU
  Section 10   From Life Saving Medicine to Medicine Centered around Nursing
  Section 11   Implementing Attendance as a Form of Medical Treatment

Chapter 3  The Light and Shadow of Organ Transplantation

Chapter 4  Various Uses of a Brain Dead Body

Chapter 5  My Death and the Death of Others

  Section 1   The Death of a Person is not Limited to Only the Medical and Legal Aspects
  Section 2   My Death, the Death of a Person Familiar to Me, and the Death of a Person Unfamiliar to Me
  Section 3   The Meaning of Death to a Person Directly Concerned with that Death

Chapter 6  Compartmentalization of Modern Medicine

Chapter 7  Efficiency and Irreplaceability

  Section 1   “Medical Treatment as Repair”
  Section 2   The Pursuit of Efficiency
  Section 3   The Ideology of a Society That Distributes Goods
  Section 4   Respecting Irreplaceability
  Section 5   The Antinomy of “Efficiency” and “Irreplaceability”
  Section 6   The Logic of “Onlookers” and the Logic of Those Directly Involved

Translation to other languages

  French translation

  Original Japanese text

Commentary on this book

Robert D. Truog, MD - "I think your way of presenting these three categories and explaining the differences between them in terms of the relationships between people is a wonderful and very useful insight....." (Commentary on "Brain Dead Person" Chapter 1 [Nov.24,2001] ) >> Read more

Chihi - "This is a must book for all those who want to think about "brain death" at present. I think this is a great book." (bk1 book review, Feb.26, 2002) >> Read more

Summary

This book shifted the Japanese debate on brain death from "brain-centered analysis" to "human relationship oriented analysis." I defined that brain death means a form of human relationships between a comatose patient and the people surrounding him/her in the ICU. I paid special attention to the emotional aspect and the inner reality of the family members of a brain dead person, because sometimes the family members at the bedside, touching the warm body of the patient, express the feeling that the brain dead person still continues to exist as a living human being. This approach, published more than 15 years ago, has deeply influenced Japanese bioethics, and would probably influence English bioethics, too.

In Chapter 5, I described the difference between "death of myself" and "death of the other," and examined its implication for our view of life and death. In Chapter 6 and 7, I discussed the essence of modern medicine and modern scientific civilization, and criticized them. The concept of irreplaceability appeared as a keyword in the end. You can read an essence of this book in this essay written in 2000. See also "Reconsidering Brain Death."

Publication Data

Tokyo Shoseki, Tokyo, Mar.6,1989, Out of Print
--- Fukutake Shoten, Tokyo, Jun.,1991, Out of Print
--- Hozokan, Tokyo, Jul.,2000, 271pages, 2400yen, written in Japanese

Tokyo Shoseki edition (1989)

Fukutake Bunko edition (1991)

Hozokan edition (2000)

(c) 1999- International Network for Life Studies >> Back to Home