"Teresi tours through the ways humanity has identified death throughout history, and includes several alarming anecdotes about when death has been misdiagnosed. But his primary focus is on brain death, and he grows increasingly aggravated as he points out that the criteria used to determine "irreversible coma" were established by a group of 13 Harvard physicians and academics nearly half a century ago, based on no data and with a stated goal of reducing controversy when it came to procuring donor organs. What's more, he stresses, even those criteria are no longer fully adhered to. For example, electroencephalography (EEG) to look for activity in the cortex is not mandated. Also alarming, he says, is that the list of conditions that can mimic the traits of brain death has grown over the years, and now includes hypothermia and drug intoxication." - M F