North Carolina § 90-323 - Death; determination by physician.

§ 90-323. Death; determination by physician.

The determination that a person is dead shall be made by a physician licensed to practice medicine applying ordinary and accepted standards of medical practice. Brain death, defined as irreversible cessation of total brain function, may be used as a sole basis for the determination that a person has died, particularly when brain death occurs in the presence of artificially maintained respiratory and circulatory functions. This specific recognition of brain death as a criterion of death of the person shall not preclude the use of other medically recognized criteria for determining whether and when a person has died. History (1979, c. 715, s. 3.) Legal Periodicals. - For survey of 1979 administrative law, see 58 N.C.L. Rev. 1185 (1980). For note, "Unanswered Implications - The Clouded Rights of the Incompetent Patient Under Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health," see 69 N.C.L. Rev. 1293 (1991).