The determination and pronouncement of when a person has died has medical, ethical, and legal implications. Laws vary from state to state, and death is usually defined in a state’s statutes.

Definitions and terminology may vary from state to state but generally a person is dead when, according to ordinary standards of medical practice, there is irreversible cessation of the person's spontaneous respiratory and circulatory functions. If artificial means of support preclude a determination that a person's spontaneous respiratory and circulatory functions have ceased, the person is dead when, in the announced opinion of a physician, according to ordinary standards of medical practice, there is irreversible cessation of all spontaneous brain function.

Death occurs when the relevant functions cease. But a formal pronouncement of death is not a legal determination of the cause, manner, or time of death.

In North Carolina, the determination of death is governed by state statutes that align with the general medical and legal consensus on the definition of death. According to North Carolina General Statutes, a person is legally declared dead when there is an irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or when there is an irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, as determined by a physician. The use of artificial means of support may necessitate the latter criteria to be applied. The pronouncement of death by a physician is based on ordinary standards of medical practice and is a formal acknowledgment that the individual has died. However, this pronouncement does not establish the legal cause, manner, or exact time of death; those determinations are separate matters that may require further investigation or legal proceedings.