title: Physician Power to Declare Death by Neurologic Criteria Threatened.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Three recent lawsuits that address declaration of brain death (BD) garnered significant media attention and threaten to limit physician power to declare BD.
  
  
  METHODS
  We discuss these cases and their consequences including: the right to refuse an apnea test, accepted medical standards for declaration of BD, and the irreversibility of BD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  These cases warrant discussion because they threaten to: limit physicians' power to determine death; incite families to seek injunctions to continue organ support after BD; and force hospitals to dispense valuable resources to dead patients in lieu of patients with reparable illnesses or injuries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physicians, philosophers, religious officials, ethicists, and lawyers must work together to address these issues and educate both the public and medical community about BD.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurocritical Care, Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, NYU Langone Medical Center, 530 First Avenue HCC-5A, New York, NY, 10016, USA. ariane.kansas.lewis@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ariane
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0756-7320
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Mitchell Hamline School of Law, 875 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, MN, 55105, USA.
authors.forename: Thaddeus Mason
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Pope
mesh_terms: D001049:Apnea / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001926:Brain Death / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*
keywords: Brain death; Death by neurologic criteria; Medicolegal; UDDA