• Ariane Lewis.
• Division of Neurocritical Care, Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, New York University Langone Medical Center, 530 First Avenue, Skirball-7R, New York, NY, 10016, USA. ariane.kansas.lewis@gmail.com.
• Neurocrit Care. 2022 Oct 1; 37 (2): 377385377-385.

AbstractIn response to concerns about the declaration of death by neurologic criteria, the Uniform Law Commission created a drafting committee to update the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) in the Fall of 2021. One of the key questions for the committee to address was the following: Should the revised UDDA address objections to the use of neurologic criteria to declare death? This article (1) provides historical background and survey results that demonstrate the need to address this question; (2) summarizes the ethical principles that support and oppose accommodation of objections to the use of neurologic criteria to declare death; (3) reviews accommodation in other areas of medicine and law; (4) discusses existing legal and hospital guidance on management of these objections; (5) examines perspectives of stakeholder medical societies and expert health care professionals, lawyers, ethicists, and philosophers on whether the revised UDDA should address these objections; (6) identifies some questions for the drafting committee to consider when deciding whether the revised UDDA should address objections to the use of neurologic criteria to declare death; and (7) summarizes the potential downstream effects of the drafting committee's decision.© 2022. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature and Neurocritical Care Society.

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