Why Is A Death? Imagined Opposite Of The Life?

They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness. Greased they 'd say. Offed, lit up, zapped while zipping. It wasn 't cruelty, just stage presence. They were actors. When someone died, it wasn 't quite dying, because in a curious way, it seemed scripted, and because they had their lines mostly memorized, irony mixed with tragedy, and because they called it by other names, as if to encyst and destroy the reality of death itself. "

Death is one of the most avoided topics because of the finality that comes with it and the fear of the unknown after death. However, there are quite a number of authors such as AtulGawande, Elisabeth Kubler-ross and Ira Byock who have attempted to go ahead and deal with death as a topic and other connected topics.Each of these authors have delved into one of the most revered topics that is death including related topics that come with it such as the dying process itself. Ira Byock’s Dying well: Peace and possibilities at the end of life is a book that looks at the moment prior to death when an individual is terminally sick and is at the point of death. A

The way I percieve death is that it is absoulute and no living thing can ever escape it. Nor should we be afraid of death it is simply a

McMahan 's The Metaphysics of Brain Death presents a case for the distinction between the body as the organism and the mind as the person. In defining this “mind-body dualism” (sec. 0, abstract), McMahan 's distinction brings forth a greater implication in the criterion for the death of a person, exploring the “dominant conception of brain death” which reasons that the loss of capacity for consciousness, caused by irreversible damage to the whole brain or brain stem, is sufficient for such a declaration as a persons ceasing to live (sec. 1, pars. 1-3). McMahan does not oppose the argument of brain death on the grounds of capacity for consciousness, but rather uses this to present that “the death of the entire brain is not equivalent to

Without presenting the biological facts and the psychological process of the human in a textbook presentation, he successfully managed to represent the human condition in each of his vignettes in an entertaining format that appeals to any type of audience. Suitably, he made the content of the book as universal as possible by not limiting it to appeal to a specific religion, race, or culture. The stories are a product of his enormous imagination, regardless of his formal education about the brain’s functions. One type of afterlife describes that death has three phases. The first two phases deal with the body physically dying.

Theologically and scientifically the concept of death has remained unopposed for centuries, however the idea of how do we conclude what is the true essence of living continues to be widely debated. A curveball case would be one regarding brain-dead patients. In December 2014, patient Jahi McMath of Oakland California – a state in which one who is brain dead is classified as not legally alive - was declared brain-dead by three doctors, thus lawfully ordered to be removed from life support. Valiant disagreement ensued upon her parents refusal to accept this judgement and till today Jahi is on life support. (Drummond, 2015). Fieser (2008) argues that the neurological theory holds the most rational denotation of death, in which absence of any form

In the realm of modern medicine, which pervades the framework of North America’s health system, death is to be avoided and delayed at all costs (McGarry 2017). For all its mensurable successes in the treatment of illness, biomedicine is incapable of curing death; an axiom unsettling for the majority of Westerners (Text 2017: 254). Given such, accounts of death as unapologetically

At the most basic level of subconscious thought, every living animal possesses a desire to stay alive. Usually, this instinct lays dormant, although in dire situations, we can be led to do unexpected things. In addition to this subconscious drive, there is a socially constructed motivation for fearing death. Thanks to the pervasive nature of religion throughout history, much of humanity has, at some point or another, feared the prospect of eternal damnation and torture during one’s life after death. Although not every religion has a negative aspect of the afterlife, or even any semblance of an afterlife at all, those religions which do contain some such construct receive much more attention in this regard. Throughout history, many

The Universal Determination of Death Act provides a comprehensive base for determining death in all situations. In 1979, the American Medical Association created the Model Determination of Death statute due to modern advances in lifesaving technology. A person may be artificially supported for respiration and circulation after all brain functions come to an end. The medical profession, has developed techniques for determining loss of brain functions while cardiorespiratory support is administered. The definition of death can’t assure recognition of these techniques, and can be demonstrated by the absence of spontaneous respiratory and cardiac functions.

There have been many variations of what the definition of total death should be over time. Until the Harvard Medical Committee formed their definition in 1968 the common definition of death was that, once cessation of cardiovascular activity occurred, a person was considered dead. This was changed when the Harvard Medical Committee released their own definition, stating the adoption of the “irreversible coma” as being the new standard for determining end of life (Jonas, 132). Presently in the United States, the commonly accepted definition of death is formed under the Determination of Death Act which essentially states that “permanent cessation of the integrated functioning of the organism as a whole” (Morris, 55) and includes both cardiovascular function and brain function as the qualifiers for death. There are two positions present now that are laid out by Edmund Pellegrino in Controversies in the Determination of Death a White Paper of the President 's Council on Bioethics: Position One states that the current neurological standard is not biologically sound and should be redefined, and Position Two states that the neurological standard is biologically sound and should not be redefined (Pellegrino, 52-58). In this paper, I will argue that the neurological standard to determine whether a human being is dead should remain the primary method because it states that a human being needs to be working as a whole in order to be alive. This means that, for a person to be considered

The combination of self-preservation instinct and the fear of the unknown is what compounds a negative connotation of death. However, death does not necessarily need to have a negative

Death is hated and always treated with fear because it is unforgiving and cruel. The interpretation of death varies from one culture to another. The interpretation of death depends on the cultural viewpoint. The Christian and biblical depiction of death is treated as either good or bad depending on the life which a person has lived. People that have lived a good life find death as good while people that have lived as wicked find death as bad.

To begin, the four approaches to defining death, adapted from Robert Veatch’s Death, Dying, and the Biological Revolution help to understand the various definitions of death. It helps to define

To others, socializing is very important to life. And for others, communication is the key. The definition of death is "the act or fact of dying, permanent ending of all life in a person, animal, or plant" according to Webster's Dictionary. Mason defines death in terms of "irreversible failure of the cardiopulmonary system or consequently as a permanent state of tissue anoxia." (43). Another definition that should be addressed is the definition of brain death. According to Stedman's Medical Dictionary, brain death is "in the presence of cardiac activity, the permanent loss of cerebral function, manifested clinically by absence of purposive responses to external stimuli, absence of cephalic reflexes, apnea, and an isoelectric electroencephalogram for at least 30 minutes in the absence of hypothermia and poisoning by central nervous system depressants." (142). If the heart is functioning, but the cerebrum is not functioning, the patient can be declared to be brain dead. To determine if the cerebrum is functioning, doctors would analyze the responses of the patient to external stimuli, run an electroencephalogram, check for cephalic reflexes, and check respiration of the patient. Lamb states that the absence of spontaneous respiration and circulation is not a sign of death, which is determined only when the physician is satisfied that the brain has ceased to function (31). Testing for respiration and circulation are simply

In his essay “On Natural Death”, research pathologist, medical doctor, and biologist Lewis Thomas attempts to console the reader about the weighty topic of death by referencing his own observations, citing scientific facts and statistics, and using the universal fear and unknown of eternal rest.