Consideraţii legale şi etice privind stabilirea momentului morţii
Legal and Ethical Implications of Establishing the Moment of Death

Summary/Abstract: Death have been defined, in last centuries, from medical point of view, as irreversible cesation of breathing, circulation and activity of nervous system, definition that was clear and easy to interpretate. In practice, however, the technical possibility of medicine to support cardiac and respiratory functions, so to ensure physiological level, even if the brain has ceased functioning and therefore the relationship of the individual life became impossible, opened the gate by us and dilemmas that are currently subjects of debate. The starting point was the need to find a new way to define death, appropriate new scientific discoveries in medicine. Medical world is suddenly, caught in the web of his own excellence, which managed to escape, apparently, not entirely, by introducing the concept of brain death. Issues raised by the timing of death, in particular cases as that of brain death, are reflected not only in medical field but also in civil and penal law. Consequences of the death of a person are legally passed on all aspects of ending of his civil capacity: the opening sequence, ending of civil rights and obligations of individuals, etc. The fact that Law 95/2006 clearly states that organs can be harvested both from those who are brain dead and from those with irreversible cardio-respiratory stop, they being declared dead without doubt, clear up, in terms of legal considerations, the status of persons in this situation. Another problem of keeping alive the body to take over organs for transplantation is the preservation of human dignity. When a brain dead person (in all senses that are involved in the definition) is declared dead we deal with a body, kept alive but who lacks both the rights of a living individual and of a deceased person. But, in conformity with the definition of the status of a human being, in terms of legal and ethical criteria, a person may be considered deceased independent of the status of the biological body.

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