Critieria of brain death (personal opinions)

The study reviews the literature dealing with cerebral death and raises some problems, not yet discussed in the literature, such as those in connection with the decerebrated pregnant woman, of which the following ones are stressed: 1. The pregnancy can continue in the decerebrated woman. If the answer is affirmative, development of the pregnancy represents represents a test of particular biological value in assessing the efficiency of ressuscitation therapy; 2. What are the effects of hipoxyia that led to decerebration of the mother on the psychosomatic development of the child, and the possibility to evaluate it in correlation with the age of the pregnancy; 3. What are the effects of prolonged forced ventilation and the artificial feeding on the development of the pregnancy ? The study ends with concrete proposals for establishing criteria for cerebral death, stressing the need for an adequate juridical frame for organ transplantation.