When medical certificates are required
21 When medical certificates are required
(1) If the respiration and circulation of the blood of a person are being artificially maintained, tissue must not be removed from the person's body for an authorised purpose unless:
(a) 2 medical practitioners, qualified as mentioned in subsection (2), have carried out a clinical examination of the person; and
(b) each of them has certified in writing that in his or her opinion, at the time of the examination, irreversible cessation of all function of the person's brain has occurred.
For subsection (1)(a):
(a) each of the medical practitioners must have been practising the medical profession for at least 5 years; and
one of them must be a medical specialist.
(3) For subsection (2)(a), a period a medical practitioner practised under the law of another country that provides for the registration of persons practising in the medical profession must be taken into account in working out the 5-year period.
In this section:
medical specialist means a person registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law in a recognised specialty stated in the following table and whose specialist title for the specialty is stated opposite:
Specialty |
Specialist title |
Anaesthesia |
Specialist anaesthetist |
Intensive care medicine |
Specialist intensive care physician |
Physician |
Specialist physician |
Physician |
Specialist neurologist |
Surgery |
Specialist general surgeon |
Surgery |
Specialist neurosurgeon |
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