本文从英国判例法和医学行业标准两个方面考察了英国法上“死亡”这一概念的发展过程, 阐释了传统的心跳和呼吸停止标准与脑死亡标准的关系以及英国社会目前对死亡定义所存在的疑虑和争议, 并且指出了英国法对我国的借鉴意义。本文通过对英国法上死亡定义的考察, 以期对我国目前正在进行的脑死亡法的起草工作有所帮助。

This article introduces the development of the definition of Death under English law mainly from the perspectives of English Case Law and four Medical Practice Codes. Then it discusses the debate on the Unitary Standard and the Binary Standard under English law, which is concerned with the relationship between the traditional standard of death and the standard of brain death. Moreover, this article describes the current apprehensions of the public towards the definition of death in England. Finally it emphasizes three points which China may learn from English law in this field. Since China is working on the draft of Brain Death Law, this article is supposed to make some contribution.