According to the Determination of Death Act, death is defined as irreversible cessation of which system?

• A. Circulatory or respiratory cessation
• B. Circulatory and nervous cessation
• C. Circulatory or nervous cessation
• D. Circulatory and respiratory cessation

Answer: (C)

Death under the Determination of Death Act can be established in two independent ways: irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or irreversible cessation of all brain functions including the brain stem. The correct choice captures this by describing death as irreversible cessation of the circulatory system or the nervous system. This matches the two-branch standard: either the cardiopulmonary criterion is met, or the neurological criterion is met. The other phrasing would imply you must have failures in both systems or mix terms wrongly, which doesn’t reflect the Act’s two alternative paths to declare death.