Abstract

Death can be defined legally and medically. It is a process. With the advent of modern resuscitation and advanced techniques in surgery and immunesuppression, death as a concept started to evolve. Brain, heart and lungs were no longer considered essential to declare death. Different criteria of the moment of death were declared and improved up on. Finally, in 1971 with the acceptance of the Minnesota criteria, brain stem death was considered. In India, with the passage of Transplantation of Human organ Act in 1994 brainstem death became legal and organ donation after brain death was allowed for the first time. The recent amendments to the act hassimplified the process of transplantation in medico-legal cases. Our study was undertaken to understand the concept of death, brainstem death and its application in our country.

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