In a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD, and co-authors seek to help practicing physicians understand, even more clearly than they already do, just how important the standards for the determination of death are.  

Advances in re-establishing postmortem circulation through extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or normothermic regional perfusion -- a transplant protocol emerging in U.S. hospitals -- have made the dichotomy between the circulatory and brain criteria of the 1980 definition in the Uniform Determination of Death Act more consequential.

"The determination of death is something that happens every day.  It is a profound and solemn act that physicians and other clinicians engage in," DeCamp said.  "They intersect the fundamental values of the profession -- values like honesty, transparency, integrity, and respect."  Read article>>