The Justice Ministry and prosecution officials are nearing a consensus that brain death should be defined as human death, close sources said Monday.

The authorities have been studying the legal problems involving brain death from the standpoint of the Penal Code, following the enactment of the Organ Transplant Law earlier this year.

The officials, who have not reached a consensus, aim to reach a conclusion as soon as possible after hearing the opinions of Penal Code scholars in early 1998, the sources said. A consensus would pave the way for legally allowing life-sustaining machines to be turned off to allow brain-dead patients to die with dignity, the sources said.

The officials' stand would also provide legal grounds for not taking action against doctors who were investigated for murder and other charges in eight past cases of organ transplants from brain-dead patients, they said. The officials have concluded that the Organ Transplant Law does not define brain death as death but only provides for organ transplant procedures, they said.

The law allows the procedure on the assumption that brain death is human death. The officials also said it is important to note that an ad hoc advisory body set up in 1990 under a specially enacted law on brain death and organ transplants recommended that brain death be defined as death from medical, social and legal standpoints.

The ministry and prosecuting officials are inclined to conclude that a person declared brain dead and who has not offered to donate organs should also be considered dead from the standpoint of criminality, the sources said. From that standpoint, a doctor who turns off an artificial respirator after a patient has been declared brain dead would not be prosecuted for murder, they said.