It's Time to Revise the Uniform Determination of Death Act

I have recently participated in a series of articles that call for amendments to the Uniform Determination of Death Act, the law that establishes who is alive and who is dead in every U.S. jurisdiction.

The first of these articles is now available from the Annals of Internal Medicine: "It's Time to Revise the Uniform Determination of Death Act." 

Ariane Lewis, Richard Bonnie, and I argue that it is time to revise the UDDA to legally standardize death declaration around the country by:

1. Specifying the “accepted medical standards” 
2. Indicating whether hormonal functions are included in “all functions of the entire brain, including the brainstem” 
3. Stating whether consent is needed before a determination of DNC
4. Providing guidance on how to respond to family objections to discontinuation of organ support after declaration of DNC. To solve these problems, we propose a revised UDDA (RUDDA)