Recently, there has been a movement to update the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), the recommended legal statute for determination of death in the U.S.
While the Uniform Law Commission is bringing together a committee to update the act, some think it might not be necessary, or even potentially negative.
“To have a two-day meeting and say ‘let’s redefine the fundamental definition of death’ – I think is very disturbing and is not the usual scientific process that should take place,” St. Tammany Parish Coroner Charles A. Preston told WWL’s Newell Normand this week.
According to publication in Neurocritical Care last year, the Uniform Determination of Death Act was formulated in 1981. It said that the revisions are being considered due to “concerns of experts in medicine, law, ethics, and philosophy,” and that the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) created a drafting committee to update the UDDA. This committee is expected to consider five key questions.
“Once the ULC finalizes revisions to the UDDA, individual states will have the opportunity to decide whether to adopt the revisions in whole or in part,” said the publication. “Hopefully, the revised UDDA will provide clarity and consistency about the legal distinction between life and death for physicians, lawyers, and the public at large.”
Preston said that the proposed changes are related to “a social shift,” in the U.S.
“This is not so much an issue of medicine from the way I see it, as it is part of this bigger social shift that we’re seeing and trying to redefine,” he said. Preston also said this could be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and “a little bit of a drift of medical ethics during the pandemic, because, you know, we began to see people who were really, really, really sick.”
Learn more about the proposed changes by listening to Normand and Preston’s full conversation here.
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