Defining Death: When Physicians and Families Differ.

AuthorAppel, J.M.
PositionAbstracts

31 J. MED. ETHICS 641 (Nov. 2005).

The definition of death has evolved rapidly over the past thirty-five years. Until the middle of the twentieth century, the medical community, the legal system, and an overwhelming majority of the public understood death to be synonymous with a cessation of circulation and pulmonary respiration. These attitudes changed as new technologies enabled patients with minimal or no brain function to remain breathing on "life support." The President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research 1981 report led to the widespread adoption of the Uniform Determination of Death Act that defines death as either a permanent loss of cardiopulmonary function or whole brain function.

Although brain death has achieved widespread acceptance worldwide, strong religious opposition exists within Buddhist...

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