Legal position of Undeadness

[kammalla]

I may be wrong but as I understand it you are dead when you're heart stops beating.
I was discussing it with a freind and we are curious; If your heart stops (you're dead) and is then restarted are you technically undead? As you have died but been brought back.

[Gmcd01]

Unlike in medicine, there is no legal definition of death (at least there wasn't when I last picked up a medical law textbook).
Some cases have suggested brain stem death be the test; others have preferred to focus either on heart beating or breathing.
I remember a criminal law text posing the question of whether, if a heart beat is the legal test, someone could 'murder' a person undergoing heart bypass- maybe even CPR.

[Clanad]

Which is the reason that here in the U.S., the standard for declaring death in questionable cases is brain wave activity. A person maintained on life-support equipment is considered dead if there's a lack of measurable brain wave activity, although the heart, lungs and circulatory system are still operating, at least in an assisted manner..

Actually, your term undead has no meaning... at least this side of Haiti or South New Orleans mon...

[noway2]

If this happened,can you claim on your life insurance?

[james10471]

If your heart stops beating you are dead and there is nothing you can do to bring it back. People mistakenly believe that you can you a defribrillator (AED) to shock the heart back to life (clear! etc), this is not the case! An AED only works if the person is in ventricular fibrillation (VF) which is where there heart is thrown out of electronic sync. The AED stops it which gives it a chance to restart using its own electrical impulses. ergo, if your heart stops you die.

[Clanad]

Ummm... how does that apply to the heart stopping procedures during open-heart surgery or even heart replacement. those hearts are stopped stone-cold (in a fashion) dead, no? I believe they are restarted with mild electric shocks...