The definition of death If we use s 41 of the Human Tissue Act VIC as our guide, a person has died when there has been an: irreversible cessation of circulation of blood in the body of the person; or irreversible cessation of all function of the brain of the person.
Brain death When looking at brain death, tests that may exclude brain death can include seizures either general or focal, or abnormal postures to name two examples. When determining brain death, some of the signs that may be illustrative of brain death can include some of the following: the pupils are unresponsive to light; when the eye surface is touched, there is no blinking corneal reflex ; no eye movement when the head is moved oculocephalic reflex ; no eye movement when ice is poured into the ear oculo-vestibular reflex ; no cough or gag reflex; complete apnoea when the ventilator is disconnected from the person; no brain activity when an electroencephalogram test is conducted.
Read more related articles Estate Planning Administrative Law. Got a legal problem? Law firms. Law firms Your firm not listed? Click here. The patient will never regain consciousness, but they can still be shown love — regardless of the legal definition of death. Update: This case was appealed to the Court of Appeal.
The woman's heart stopped beating before the decision was rendered, but the Court issued a decision regardless. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the lower court, confirming that brain death is the legal criteria for death in Ontario. When is a person legally dead? And does it really matter? Click here to learn more about how you can help them. Daycare Law. Elder Law.
Family Caregivers. Health Services. Human Rights. Legislative Update. Lisa Feldstein Law Office. Mental Health. A Harvard Medical School committee, prompted in part by better understanding of brain function and by the new field of organ transplantation, advanced the standard that a person could be considered dead when he no longer exhibited functioning brain activity. The committee outlined specific neurological tests to be performed before declaring a person dead. This was known as "brain death" and became an alternative definition of death.
Death might now be declared in two ways — if a person's heart and lungs ceased functioning or if there was no brain activity. In , Kansas became the first state to legally recognize brain death as an acceptable determination of death. Kansas has an extensive interstate highway system so brain trauma from motor vehicle accidents was undoubtedly a consideration.
In , a presidential council proposed a uniform statute for brain death, a plan endorsed by the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association. Since then, every state in the United States has adopted, by legislation or judicial decree, brain death as a definition of death. Diagnosing brain death basically involves two steps. There is a detailed process to ascertain no higher brain activity, including a patient's inability to respond to voice, touch, pain or other stimuli.
The second step involves determining the brainstem, the primitive part of the brain, no longer functions to regulate the patient's breathing. No patient with a proper diagnosis of brain death ever has recovered to come off life support. Even with life support, no one has survived for a prolonged period, and when life support is withdrawn the heart invariably stops within minutes.
One important caveat is that there is some variability in the medical community on specific requirements for the diagnosis. This question has gained immediacy because of the case of year-old Jahi McMath.
In December, the Oakland, Calif. A surgical complication occurred, and Jahi suffered a massive brain insult. Several neurologists confirmed that afterward Jahi had no sign of electrical activity, no blood flow to her brain, and was unable to breathe on her own.
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