Recognition of that state required the withdrawal of further artificial support so that death is allowed to occur, thus "sparing relatives from the further emotional trauma of sterile hope".In 1979, the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges promulgated its conclusion that identification of the state defined by those same criteria – then thought sufficient for a diagnosis of brain death – "means that the patient is dead". Death certification on those criteria has continued in the United Kingdom (where there is no statutory legal definition of death) since that time, particularly for organ transplantation purposes, although the conceptual basis for that use has changed. In 1995, after a review by a Working Group of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges formally adopted the "more correct" term for the syndrome, "brainstem death" – championed by Pallis in a set of 1982 articles in the British Medical Journal – and advanced a new definition of human death as the basis for equating this syndrome with the death of the person. The suggested new definition of death was the "irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness, combined with irreversible loss of the capacity to breathe". It was stated that the irreversible cessation of brainstem function will produce this state and "therefore brainstem death is equivalent to the death of the individual". Diagnosis
In the UK, the formal rules for the diagnosis of brainstem death have undergone only minor modifications since they were first published in 1976.
The treatments given to George Washington, such as severe bloodletting, an enema, vinegar, sage, molasses, butter, blistering his throat with Spanish fly, requiring him to swallow mercurous chloride and antimony potassium tartrate, and applying wheat poultices to various parts of the body, are no longer used. References
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