Position on the Criteria of Brain Death in the Documents of the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches in Germany
Position on the Criteria of Brain Death in the Documents of the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches in Germany

Summary/Abstract: Organ transplantation is one of the most successful forms of medicine of the 20th century and can save and prolong many lives. Due to the fact that there are not enough organs for transplantation, the question of the criteria by which the organs are allocated was raised. In Germany, since 1970, rules have been developed regarding the reallocation of organs. Both the Roman-Catholic Church and the Evangelical ones accompanied this process of formulating these rules through studies and debates. The current study tries to present the main texts of these two great confessions in Germany, which present the position of each Church regarding organ transplantation, as well as a more delicate issue of brain death. The position of each Church is also formed by confronting medical studies regarding this problem. One of the most important texts, based on which the Churches have formulated their position regarding brain death, is the study of the German Council of Ethics from 2015, a study that is based on a study “The White Paper” of the Presidents Council of Bioethics from the USA from 2008. Analysis of this study and the texts of the two Churches will reveal to us how they relate to the criterion of brain death proposed by medical science in this two studies.

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