- No universally accepted definition of what constitutes death within either medicine or law
- A definition of brainstem death is taken from the unitary state of death as proposed by the Academy of Medical Royal College’s (AoMRC) 2008 Report ‘Code of Practice for Confirmation of Diagnosis of Death’
‘Irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness, combined with irreversible loss of the capacity to breathe’
- On this basis, brainstem death is considered to equate with cardiac death of the individual
- Whilst not a legal definition, the courts in England and Wales have adopted the definition proposed by the Academy of Royal Colleges and forms part of case law