The Undead: Organ Harvesting, the Ice-Water Test, Beating-Heart Cadavers--How Medicine Is Blurring the Line Between Life and Death - Softcover

"Strong stuff. . . . This disturbing, often hilarious book raises many critical questions about deadness."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Reading Dick Teresi's book is like discovering that your college class has been hijacked by the spitball-lobbing kid in the back row--and that the kid is twice as smart as the prof ever was. . . . Taking on biologists, philosophers, and the medical establishment, Teresi zestfully skewers our confused thinking about life, death, and the states in between. A pleasure to read."
--Charles C. Mann, author of 1493 and 1491

"An indefatigable researcher and fluid writer, Mr. Teresi provides a good long riff on death past and present."
--The New York Times

"Charting historical definitions of death, the thinking of research greats and debates over near-death experiences, Teresi notes that the ethical challenges are immense, asking, for instance, whether all organ donors are unrevivable."
--Nature

"The simple question Teresi asks is: 'When exactly is a person dead?' Prepare to have your assumptions shattered."
--The Globe and Mail (UK)

"Chilling, controversial, and, at times, comical commentary on physical death...All sorts of experts--on coma, animal euthanasia, and execution--as well as undertakers, organ transplant staff, neurologists, ethicists, and lawyers weigh-in on the death debate."
--Booklist

"As I was pulled into this startling, informative account of death-defying and death-defining, I couldn't help putting a checkmark in the margin next to every line that made me gasp--or laugh--or marvel at Dick Teresi's bold, inimitable reporting style. On some pages I made as many as four checkmarks. The book left me reeling at the welter of uncertainty that surrounds the certainty of death."
--Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and A More Perfect Heaven

"Like a real-life version of Robin Cook's medical thriller Coma, Teresi paints a grisly picture of organ harvesting and raises uncomfortable questions: Is the donor actually dead rather than at the point of death? Might he or she be revived given time and proper medical attention?. . . . Provocative. . . . [An] examination of important ethical issues and the still-unresolved question of what constitutes death."
--Kirkus Reviews