Glossary
Select a letter below to find the word you are looking for. The glossary terms are for use in context with the work of the HTA, and are taken from our codes of practice.
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Neonatal death
A neonatal death is a fetus of any gestational age which is born alive and dies before the age of 28 days.
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Nominated representative
A person appointed to represent someone after their death who is empowered to consent to the removal, storage and use of the body or tissue for any of the scheduled purposes, other than anatomical examination or public display.
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Non-heartbeating donation
A form of donation in circumstances where the deceased donor was not ventilated at the time of death. Donation therefore occurs once death is certified following cardiorespiratory arrest (i.e. the donor’s heart has stopped beating). This is described as controlled when treatment has been actively withdrawn within a hospital setting; or uncontrolled where a patient has experienced an unexpected cardiac arrest from which they cannot be resuscitated.
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Non-identifiable
Ensuring that if human tissue is removed from a human body, all necessary steps are taken to prevent the person from whose body the material has come from being identified.
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Non-invasive autopsies
Non-invasive autopsies (also referred to as virtopsies), in which the body surface is not breached, are undertaken by use of scans or ultrasound providing a three-dimensional image of the patient’s internal organs and structure (in particular the soft tissues). The non-invasive post-mortem examination does not include the sampling of tissues for histological, microbiological, or chemical analysis.