The physician must understand this difference, because brain death means that life support is useless, and brain death is the principal requisite for the donation of organs for transplantation.

Brain dead. The two words are ominous, frightening, final. And often so misunderstood. As a medical diagnosis, brain death is relatively straightforward, determined by standardized tests widely ...

Brain death, also called death by neurological criteria, is the practice of declaring a person dead based on the loss of brain function, rather than the stoppage of the heart and breathing.

While the moment of human conception— the beginning of life— is well-understood and observed from a scientific standpoint, the exact moment of death can be harder to pin down.

According to the Uniform Determination of Death Act of 1981, an individual is declared dead when he or she "has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or ...

The concept of death has evolved as technology has progressed. This has forced medicine and society to redefine its ancient cardiorespiratory centred diagnosis to a neurocentric diagnosis of death.

A person who has received a brain-death diagnosis cannot breathe on his or her own and is legally dead, in all 50 states.

Recent dubious brain death diagnoses have some calling for an end to the controversial protocol.

Brain stem gliomas are a type of tumor that start in the glial cells in the brain stem. Learn more here.

What Are Basilar Invagination Symptoms? BasiIar invagination symptoms can vary based on the pressure on the brain stem, spinal cord, or nerves. You may notice symptoms when you bend your neck.