Diagnosing death and resurrecting the myth or reality of catalepsy.
Diagnosing death and resurrecting the myth or reality of catalepsy.

Summary/Abstract: Death is medically described as the irreversible loss of essential characteristics and requires irreversible loss of capacity for consciousness and capacity to breathe. Death certification has legal, ethical, philosophical, biolog-ical, cultural, and religious characteristics and consequences. Its diagnosis is based on the best available scien-tific evidence: somatic, circulatory and/or neurological criteria. even if we accept that determination of death is ‘scientific’ and a set of criteria for its diagnosis have been estab-lished, death diagnoses still differ between countries. It is for this reason and for sporadic cases, such as one that occurred recently in Spain, that ‘artistic’ aspects of medicine and the mystery of the extensively described condition of catalepsy are revived.Catalepsy is a medical condition characterised by inactivity, decreased responsiveness to external stimuli, and a tendency to maintain an immobile posture (muscular rigidity). This condition may be associated with psy-chotic disorders, nervous system drug toxicity, and other conditions. Moreover, its influence in artistic litera-ture and mass media has led to the consideration of catalepsy as a cornerstone in the confluence of medicine, art, mystery, science, and society.

• Details
• Contents