What is Death, in the 21st century?

Udaya K Ranawaka

doi:10.4038/cmj.v66i1.9347

Abstract

Ceylon Medical Journal (CMJ) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal published quarterly by the Sri Lanka Medical Association in the last week of March, June, September and December each year. The mission of the CMJ is to promote the science and art of medicine and betterment of public health. The Journal publishes original papers and commentaries which have relevance to medicine and allied sciences. The CMJ is committed to maintaining and conforming to the editorial and ethical standards recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Highlights

Assistant Editors Carukshi Arambepola MBBS, MD Ajith de Silva Nagahawatte MBBS, MD Ranil Fernando FRCS, PhD Raveen Hanwella MBBS, MD Renuka Jayatissa MD, MSc Sarath Lekamwasam MD, PhD Udaya K Ranawaka MD, FRCP Sachith Mettananda MBBS, MD Shamini Prathapan MBBS, MD Sisira Siribaddana MD, FRCP
Society requires a clear definition of death – ‘to define murder and manslaughter, to allow wills to be read, to allow burial or cremation, and to allow grieving to commence’ [1]. To put it mildly, that there is no global consensus on such a fundamental concept, and a unifying definition of death is clearly an imperative
The concept of brain death was introduced by the French neurologists Mollaret and Goulon in their seminal paper ‘coma depassé’ in 1959 [3,4]

Summary

Introduction

Assistant Editors Carukshi Arambepola MBBS, MD Ajith de Silva Nagahawatte MBBS, MD Ranil Fernando FRCS, PhD Raveen Hanwella MBBS, MD Renuka Jayatissa MD, MSc Sarath Lekamwasam MD, PhD Udaya K Ranawaka MD, FRCP Sachith Mettananda MBBS, MD Shamini Prathapan MBBS, MD Sisira Siribaddana MD, FRCP. This was followed by the adoption of ‘brain stem’ criteria for determination of death by the medical community in the UK [6,7]. Determining death by neurological criteria was endorsed by at least 70 countries by 2015 [9], yet there is continued debate regarding the concept of brain death, the criteria used and their application [2,9,10,11,12,13,14,15].

Results

Conclusion