Wisconsin Statutes
Wis. Stat. § 146.71 (2026)
Determination of death
✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases:
SyfertCases citing this section
WI-LEGdocs.legis.wisconsin.gov
JustiaChapter on Justia
CornellLII Search
CasesGoogle Scholar
146.71146.71 Determination of death. An individual who has sustained either irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. A determination of death shall be made in accordance with accepted medical standards.
146.71 AnnotationTo determine whether an infant was “born alive” under s. 939.22 (16) for purposes of the homicide laws, courts apply this section. State v. Cornelius, 152 Wis. 2d 272, 448 N.W.2d 434 (Ct. App. 1989).
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2
cases, 1987–1989 · leading case: State v. Cornelius, 448 N.W.2d 434 (Wis. Ct. App. 1989).
State v. Cornelius, 448 N.W.2d 434 (Wis. Ct. App. 1989). “Although the legislature has never defined "born alive," it has chosen to define death in sec. 146.71, Stats. We accept as axiomatic the legal, if not medical, proposition that if one is not dead, he is indeed alive.”
In Matter of Est. of Villwock, 418 N.W.2d 1 (Wis. Ct. App. 1987). “Roy’s will left everything to June and contained no contingency that she need survive him any period of time in order to take under the will. There were no other dispositive provisions in the will.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.