Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41918800›Full record

ArticleJournal of the Intensive Care Society2026

The Code of Practice 2025 and the medicolegal definition of death.

Liam Scott, Ian Thomas

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of the Intensive Care Society, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Liam ScottSouthmead Critical Care Unit, Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2065-1161
Ian ThomasSouthmead Critical Care Unit, Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In January 2025 the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges published an updated Code of Practice for the Diagnosis and Confirmation of Death, the first major update for 17 years. It represents the authoritative medical consensus on the diagnosis and confirmation of death in all contexts (and in all age groups) in the UK. This paper reviews the new Code, highlighting the major updates from the 2008 guidance and their relevance for intensive care clinicians. It goes on to explore the wider legal history and context, in particular the role that previous versions of the Academy's guidelines have played during the emergence of a common law definition of death. It examines the important legal cases in which the Code of Practice was endorsed and ultimately adopted by the courts as the definitive medical and legal definition of death in the UK.

Indexed as

Code of Practice 2025consentdeath by neurologic criteriadiagnosis of deathmedical law

Identifiers

PMID41918800
PMCPMC13033582

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.