After Quinlan: The Dilemma of the Persistent Vegetative State

In 1968 an ad hoc committee of Harvard Medical School recommended that death be defined as cessation of all brain function1. Before that time, a patient was not pronounced dead until heart and lung function had ceased. One by one, the states accepted brain death as the legal definition of death -- a movement that was accelerated when the President's Commission formulated the Uniform Determination of Death Act in 19812. All 50 states and the District of Columbia now accept this standard3. It is remarkable how rapidly the concept of brain death attracted an ethical, social, and . . .