Brain Death and Disorders of ConsciousnessAuthor: Calixto Machado, D. Alan Shewmon Published by Springer US ISBN: 978-1-4757-0976-6 DOI: 10.1007/978-0-306-48526-8Table of Contents:Brain Death The Concept of Brain Death The “Critical Organ” for the Organism as a Whole “Brain Death” is not Death The Conceptual Basis for Brain Death Revisited Consciousness, Mind, Brain, and Death The Death of Death The Semiotics of Death and its Medical Implications About the Continuity of Our Consciousness Brain Death and Organ Transplantation Cuba has Passed a Law for the Determination and Certification of Death Neuroprotection Becomes Reality Controlled Hypertension for Refractory High Intracranial Pressure On Irreversibility as a Prerequisite for Brain Death Determination How Should Testing for Apnea be Performed in Diagnosing Brain Death? Evoked Potentials in the Diagnosis of Brain Death Recovery from near Death Following Cerebral Anoxia Human Brain-Dead Donors and 31P MRS Studies on Feline Myocardial Energy Metabolism Organ Donation after Fatal Poisoning The ABC of PVS, Although some decades have passed, there are still worldwide controversies about a concept of human death on neurological grounds. There are also disagreements on the diagnostic criteria for brain death, whether clinical alone or clinical plus ancillary tests. Moreover, some scholars who were strong defenders of a brain-based standard of death are now favoring a circulatory-respiratory standard. The study of coma is extremely important because lesions of the brain are responsible for quality of life in patients or cause of death. The main goal of Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness is to provide a suitable scientific platform to discuss all topics related to human death and coma