What does ‘brain dead’ mean? The battle over how science defines death
What does ‘brain dead’ really mean? The battle over how science defines the end of life

        

        
            
        
        
            
                
                    
                        

    
        
            
                NEWS FEATURE
                11 July 2023
                
            

            

            
                
                
                    Ideological differences threaten to muddy the definition of death in the United States — with potentially negative consequences for clinicians and people awaiting organ transplants.
                
            
        
        
            
    
        
            
                
                    Max Kozlov
                
                
                
                    
                
            
        
    

        
    
    


            
            


        
            
                
                    
                        

                        
                    
                
            

            
                

                

                
                    Dead in California but alive in New Jersey: that was the status of 13-year-old Jahi McMath after physicians in Oakland, California, declared her brain dead in 2013, after complications from a tonsillectomy. Unhappy with the care that their daughter received and unwilling to remove life support, McMath’s family moved with her to New Jersey, where the law allowed them to lodge a religious objection to the declaration of brain death and keep McMath connected to life-support systems for another four and a half years.
                    
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                Nature 619, 240-242 (2023)
                doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02226-z

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