Dying cells often display a large-scale accumulation of autophagosomes and hence adopt a
morphology called autophagic cell death. In many cases, it is agreed that this autophagic
cell death is cell death with autophagy rather than cell death by autophagy. Here, we
evaluate the accumulating body of literature that argues that cell death occurs by autophagy.
We also list the caveats that must be considered when deciding whether or not autophagy is
an important effector mechanism of cell death.