As a medical professional with expertise in neurology, I can explain the concept of brain death. Brain death is a legal and clinical determination that an individual has sustained irreversible loss of all functions of the entire brain, including the brainstem. It is a diagnosis that signifies the end of life, different from a vegetative state, which is a condition where a person has lost cognitive function but maintains some brainstem activity.

The criteria for determining brain death include:

1. Irreversible cause: There must be a known and irreversible cause of the brain injury.

2. Absence of brainstem reflexes: The individual must not show any brainstem reflexes, such as the pupillary, corneal, or cough reflexes.

3. Apnea test: The patient must not initiate breathing when the ventilator is disconnected and the level of carbon dioxide in the blood is allowed to rise.

4. No response to stimuli: There should be no response to any external stimuli, including painful stimuli.

5. Confirmation tests: Additional tests, such as an electroencephalogram (EEG) showing electrical silence or cerebral blood flow studies, may be used to confirm the diagnosis.

Once brain death is declared, life-sustaining treatments are typically withdrawn, as the individual is legally and clinically dead.

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It could be could be saved as ethical policy, however, by changing the standard from the UDDA's ��irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem�� to a higher brain standard, that is, to permanent loss of consciousness, without requiring loss of brain stem function.read more >>