ON SEPT 27, 1974, the governor of California approved a new brain death statute. It states:
A person shall be pronounced dead if it is determined by a physician that the person has suffered a total and irreversible cessation of brain function. There shall be independent confirmation of the death by another physician.
Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit a physician from using other usual and customary procedures for determining death as the exclusive basis for pronouncing a person dead.
When a part of the donor is used for direct transplantation pursuant to the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and the death of the donor is determined by determining that the person has suffered a total and irreversible cessation of brain function, there shall be an independent confirmation of the death by another physician. Neither the physician making the determination of death... nor the physician making the independent confirmation shall participate