A Definition of Irreversible Coma

Abstract

*This article was originally published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1968 (Beecher HK, et al. A Definition of Irreversible Coma: Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death. JAMA 1968;205:337–340) and is being reprinted here in its entirety with permission. Copyright © (1968), American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death The Ad Hoc Committee includes Henry K. Beecher, MD, Chairman; Raymond D. Adams, MD; A. Clifford Barger, MD; William J. Curran, LLM, SMHyg; Derek Denny-Brown, MD; Dana L. Farnsworth, MD; Jordi Folch-Pi, MD; Everett I. Mendelsohn, PhD; John P. Merrill, MD; Joseph Murray, MD; Ralph Potter, ThD; Robert Schwab, MD, and William Sweet, MD