An Overview of Ethical Issues Raised by Medicolegal Challenges to Death by Neurologic Criteria in the United Kingdom and a Comparison to Management of These Challenges in the USA

Abstract

Although medicolegal challenges to the use of neurologic criteria to declare death in the USA have been well-described, the management of court cases in the United Kingdom about objections to the use of neurologic criteria to declare death has not been explored in the bioethics or medical literature. This article (1) reviews conceptual, medical and legal differences between death by neurologic criteria (DNC) in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world to contextualize medicolegal challenges to DNC; (2) summarizes highly publicized legal cases related to DNC in the United Kingdom, including the nuanced 2022 case of Archie Battersbee, who was transiently considered dead by neurologic criteria, but ultimately determined to be in a vegetative state/unresponsive-wakeful state; and (3) provides an overview of ethical issues raised by medicolegal challenges to DNC in the United Kingdom and a comparison to the management of these challenges in the USA.

Keywords:

• Brain injury
• end-of-life issues
• law
• neurology
• pediatrics
• religion

This article is referred to by:

Ethical Issues in Death by Neurologic Criteria Require Critical Scrutiny: Lack of Engagement with Sound Arguments to Save Medical Dogma

Brainstem Death Is Dead. Long Live Brainstem Death!

Time for Federal Standards on Death Determination: The National Determination of Death Act

Interests and Choices in Determining Death by Neurological Criteria

Parents Have a Right to Refuse Brain Death Testing, Including Apnea Testing

The Brainstem Criterion of Death and Accurate Syndromic Diagnosis

Consent, Consultation, or Authorization Is Required for DNC Testing in the UK

The Brain Death Criterion in Light of Value-Based Disagreement Versus Biomedical Uncertainty

Response to Open Peer Commentaries Re: Medicolegal Challenges to Death by Neurologic Criteria in the United Kingdom and USA

The Advantages of the Higher Brain Criterion for Determining Death

Medicolegal Challenges to Death by Neurologic Criteria in the United Kingdom and the United States: Lessons Learned from the Case of Archie Battersbee and a Suggestion for Mid-Level Principles to Enhance an Ongoing Dialogue

No Country for Old Laws: Why the Effort to Revise the UDDA Reveals the Social Weakness of Medicine in the US

By Statute or by Common Law? The Legal Determination of Death

Parents Don’t Know Best in the United Kingdom

FUNDING

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.