How Human Head Transplantation Could Alter the Legal Definition of Death

In 2013, Surgical Neurology International published a protocol for the GEMINI procedure, the world’s first human head transplant surgery. With the assumption that head transplants are possible in the future, we introduce a legal thought experiment that calls the current criteria of death under the United States UDDA into question. Utilizing case law and examples of contemporary medical interventions, we analyze how neurological and circulatory systems can be reversed and challenge the UDDA criteria of death. We favor the definition of death that includes the irreversibility of the brain and brainstem, but recommend the Uniform Law Commission strike irreversible respiratory and circulatory functions as indicators of death. We also recommend that a congressional bill should be proposed for the definition of death, allowing Article Six to supersede the current legal landscape.