[Organ transplantation and brain death. A critical contribution to the definition of brain death].

The following article is based on a lecture held in February 1996 in Bremen on the occasion of the 6. International Symposium of Intensive Medicine. Some arguments of the discussion about Brain-Death Definition are inquired. The main points are not the identification-methods (diagnosis) of brain-death but the function of Brain-Death-Definition. On one hand it is possible to demonstrate that the points of criticism are not plausible; on the other hand that the discussion about Brain-Death-Definition is a substitute that can't give an answer to the real ethical problem. The question is: "Which kind of medicine does the society want?" The main objective is to get to the matters of facts in the current discussion to create the presupposition reasonable orientation.