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[What is death?--Definitions and diagnoses from 2500 years of natural philosophy and medicine].

For very long medicine has been dealing with the question what death means and when it has occurred. The promotion of this debate is mainly owed to the new medical findings and the concrete requirements of the clinical practice; but other factors like social-historical influences (in particular the dispute over the secure determination of death) as well as the (de-)medicalization of the concept of death have also to be taken into account. In a concise historical overlook this study aims to demonstrate the development of the definition of death: In ancient Greece Aristotle, disregarding the transcendent teleology, describes the natural or non-natural death that occurs when the production of the vegetative warmth in the central organ - the heart - has ceased. In the Enlightenment Johann August Unzer (emulated later by Bichat and Hufeland) worked out the concept of the step-by-step process of death: In the attempt to explain sudden death, apparent death and reanimation the enlightened physiologist differentiated between the cessation of the senses (caused by heart death and brain death) and the vegetative functions. In the second half of the 20th century progress made in transplanting and intensive care generated a broadened medical definition of death that met strong opposition in the discussions on the autonomy of the patient and the worth of human life. Generally considered, the increasing differences in interpreting death between physicians and medical laymen, but also in medical practice and basic research are mainly due to the divergent demands regarding the definition and diagnosis of death.