Defining Death: A Report on the Medical, Legal and Ethical Issues in the Determination of Death

Title: Defining Death: A Report on the Medical, Legal and Ethical Issues in the Determination of Death
ABP identifier: ABP-W-0012
Creator: President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research
Date: 1981
Description: The President's Commission's 1981 report examined medical, legal, and ethical questions surrounding the determination of death and recommended a uniform statutory approach recognizing irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem.
Intellectual stream: Clinical ethics & professionalism; Law & public policy
Verification status: Verified
Evidence confidence: High
Historical significance: Extended earlier debates over neurological criteria into a national medical-legal framework and connected definitions of death to intensive care, law, and transplantation.
Historical role: Major national effort to standardize the determination of death amid intensive care and transplantation.
Open question: How should the report be linked to the 1968 Harvard criteria, state adoption of the UDDA, and later controversies over neurological criteria?