X-Message-Number: 1266
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 92 00:59:54 CDT
From: Brian Wowk <>
Subject: CRYONICS: Brain Death; Legal Death in the UK

Tim Freeman:
 
>  read the sci.cryonics FAQ in the UK, and he
> says that the criterion for legal death in the UK has something to do
> with "brain death".  Does anyone have a definition for "brain death"
> they are reasonably sure of, and do any of the UK cryonics supporters
> know how legal death is determined there?  Any responses will probably
> be put into the FAQ.
 
        In most jurisdictions in the modern world, legal death is defined as 
"irreversible cessation of vital functions (heartbeat and breathing)" OR 
"irreversible cessation of electrical activity in the brain stem."  This 
means that if a person's heart stops, and you can't restart it (or if a Do 
Not Resuscitate order says it shouldn't be restarted), that patient can be 
declared legally dead on the spot.  These are the circumstances under which 
most cryonic suspensions are performed: the *heart* has been stopped for only 
a couple of minutes, and the brain is still in reasonably good shape.
 
        The "brain death" criterion only comes into effect in special cases 
where the brain is severely injured, and vital functions (hearbeat and 
breathing) are being maintained by a respirator.  If in these cases the brain 
stem does not recover function after a certain length of time, the patient 
will be declared "brain dead", and removed from the respirator.  This 
scenario is indeed a disaster for a cryonics patient.  Fortunately it is 
rare.
 
        To summarize, legal death can typically be pronounced as soon as the 
heart stops.  I'm not aware of any jurisdiction that insists a patient in 
cardiac arrest must suffer some minimum amount of brain damge before legal 
death can be pronounced.  I'd be surprised if the UK was an exception.  
 
                                                --- Brian Wowk     

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