After surveying the views expressed by 41 advocacy, medical, and transplant-focused organizations on the Uniform Determination of Death Act, a brain injury expert is calling for much-needed reforms to the legal definition of death in the United States.
Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc.Oct 26 2023 The recently announced pause by the Uniform Law Commission, which is spearheading revisions, is disappointing, the expert notes, but should not permanently stall practical fixes to long-standing problems with the Death Act.
Specifically, Dr. Lewis argues, the legal description for death needs to reflect medical guidelines, which do not require that loss of hormone function be considered when declaring someone brain-dead. Moreover, Dr. Lewis says, the Death Act needs to be revised to include legal guidance for healthcare providers about what to do when a family objects to stopping mechanically assisted breathing for a relative who is already brain-dead.
Published in the journal Neurocritical Care online October 26, the study involved a detailed review of the comments and viewpoints submitted to the commission between January and July 2023 by 41 organizations affected by the Death Act. Citing the need for more legal guidance for physicians, Dr. Lewis is calling on the commission to accept international and national medical standards for death by neurological criteria. Among these are guidelines published by the American Academy of Neurology, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Child Neurology Society, none of which require the loss of hormone function when declaring someone brain-dead.
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