Although physiological cell death has been known for decades, interest in the subject was renewed in 1972 when Kerr, Wyllie and Currie described in detail the ultrastructural changes characteristic of dying cells and coined the term apoptosis to describe the process. When dying during development or following a toxic insult, cells display a wide variety of morphological changes. A binary classification scheme suggests that physiologically appropriate death is due to apoptosis, and that pathological mechanisms involve necrosis. In this report, we will address developments in our understanding of a potential involvement of apoptotic cell death in ischemia which induce selective and delayed neuronal degeneration. Such results may open important steps in therapeutic approaches for the preservation of neurons.