North Dakota Law

Updates from the University of North Dakota School of Law.

The Uniform Law Commission drafting committee is working on revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act and was recently featured in a WSJ article: Professor Bradley Myers is a member of the committee

The Wall Street Journal:  Doctors and Lawyers Debate Meaning of Death as Families Challenge Practices

Changing the determination of brain death potentially affects organ donation

Dec. 11, 2022 9:00 am ET

How doctors determine death is up for debate.

For more than four decades, death in the U.S. has been determined in two main ways. Life ends when the heart and lungs stop working. Or physicians might declare a person brain-dead, defined as the irreversible cessation of all brain function, even if the heart and lungs can be maintained with machines.

Read the full WSJ article