All 50 states do recognize some form of brain death now with a lot of them adopting the language from the definition. In Massachusetts, that means you are legally dead and we fill out the death certificate at that point. But no matter how hard people try, brain death refuses to be as simple as the death where your heart and lungs stop. That arguably is because the small nuances between the states have created complications,. which became very clear on a national stage back in 2013 with the story of Jaha'i MacMeth.