death

Death is, under Danish law, defined as the irreversible cessation of a person's vital functions, and the law sets out two equally valid criteria for when death can be established. The first criterion is the irreversible cessation of respiration and cardiac activity. The second is the irreversible cessation of all brain function, also known as brain death. The definition is laid down in the Danish Health Act (sundhedsloven) § 176 and is therefore not a criminal-law definition but a health-law one. It is nonetheless a definition with far-reaching legal consequences, since the determination of death is the starting point for a range of legal and practical matters, including inheritance, organ donation and the investigation of deaths.

The determination of death is tied to medical assessment. It is thus a physician who, on the basis of the two statutory criteria, establishes that death has occurred. This link between law and medicine ensures that the legal determination rests on a professional foundation.

In a criminal-law context, the concept of death is central in cases concerning homicide and violence resulting in death, but the Danish Penal Code (straffeloven) contains no separate definition of the concept of death. In such cases the administration of justice draws on the health-law definition and on medical documentation, typically in the form of a death certificate or a forensic medical statement.