Abstract

The article is an attempt to show the evolution of the medical explanation of the phenomenon of death. Characteristic features of this evolution are the following: 1. In the history of medicine there are two main ideas that explain the phenomenon of death: the idea of qualitative transformations, which means the stopping of metabolism, and the idea of quantitative transformations, which means the loss of the “essence of life”. It may be the loss of consciousness or the loss of an important factor that sustains life. 2. From a biological point of view, death is a process, but for practical purposes, medicine also tried to express it in the form of moment. 3. Medical progress leads to the formulating of new definitions of death, but that does not mean that medicine is able to decide which one to choose. Rather, it needs philosophy for this.