[Criteria for determining death in the Jewish religion].

Abstract

In accordance with Jewish thinking, life ends with the last breath. Analogous to the beginning of life, two leading principles are important for the bioethical assessment of the end of life: the sanctity of life and the fundamental importance of this world. Thus the criteria for the definition of death are the following, which have consequences for the questions of euthanasia, organ-transplantation, autopsies and the status of the dead.