Questions raised by Nevada court fight over life-support

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A father's bid to keep his 20-year-old daughter on life-support at a Reno hospital after doctors declared her brain-dead is pending before a Nevada state court judge.

Beyond the family attorney's claim on Wednesday that the cost of caring for Aden Hailu (AY'-dehn HEHL'-oo) is driving hospital efforts to pull the plug, the case raises key questions about Nevada's interpretation of national end-of-life guidelines.

The Nevada Supreme Court wants to know whether Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center met state law when doctors declared Aden Hailu dead May 28, several weeks after she failed to regain consciousness following abdominal surgery.

Justices say they want evidence that American Association of Neurology guidelines used by the hospital to determine Hailu's brain had ceased to function met "accepted medical standards," as required by state law.

Nevada requires a finding "in accordance with accepted medical standards" of irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory function or "all functions of the person's entire brain, including his or her brain stem."

The state Supreme Court acknowledged Nevada sets an "extraordinarily broad standard" by requiring a finding that irreversible cessation of brain stem functions is the accepted medical standard among the states that enact the Uniform Determination of Death Act.

In 1980, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted the act as a guideline, in cooperation with the American Bar Association, American Medical Association and the President's Commission on Medical Ethics.

The act widened the basic and most common determination of death — total failure of the heart and lungs — to include irreversible cessation of all brain function.

So-called Harvard criteria check for lack of response to pain stimuli, lack of spontaneous muscular movement or respiration, and absence of reflexes including eye movement, swallowing