I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind−and that of the minds of the ones who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or a town (42).…
Death is such an innate part of the understanding of existence, that it is logical that through time millions of people have tried to answer that immortal question: what happens…
Death is the eternal end of the natural functions that define a living organism. Death is something that can bring great effect on living beings in the world. The novel, A Scientific Romance written by Ronald Wright, depicts death having a great impact on existence in various forms. The main character, David Lambert experiences some forms of death and their overall impact on existence, through the destruction of Earth, diminishing education system, and the loss of loved ones.…
Theories surrounding the understanding and meaning of death tend to focus on either religion or medicine. Religious attitudes to death are more abstract, while the medical world attempts to separate the living from the dead and the ill from the healthy, providing rationality in the face of demise (Seale 1998, p. 75). Seale (1998, p. 76) describes religion as a means of relieving death anxiety for the living; explaining that those who believe in an afterlife have a less dramatic relationship with death. Harding, Flannelly, Weaver and Costa (2005, p. 253) substantiate this idea with findings that show significantly less death anxiety and considerably more death acceptance amongst religious groups. Moreover Freud (cited in Koenig, 2001, p. 98) sates that “only religion can give meaning to life”. In contrast Seale (1998, p. 75) explains the medicinal outlook on death in two distinct veins, the first being the “best hope” for those who are suffering and are close to death and the second being a “reasonable account” for why all people must die. In addition Seale (1998, p. 77) places medicine and death in direct opposition stating that medicine seeks to cure the “natural death”. Contrastingly, Zola (2011, p. 487) states that the role of medicine within death is not concerned with saving lives, but instead with the controlling of terminally ill or elderly patients. This thought is ripe throughout work surrounding palliative care (see Conrad 1992), however some scholars see the implementation of medical care as simply providing support for those on the verge of passing (Zimmerman & Rodin, 2004, p. 122). In summary, both religious and medicinal approaches to understanding death by the living are still both extremely popular, however the array of works which document…
A prime idea that is constantly diverse between religions is the idea of death, body and soul. Linear religions such as Christianity primarily believed that death was a punishment for the bad and wicked. This idea was adopted from the fact that human beings were created to live forever, however after the fall of man and Original Sin, man was condemned to mortality. This idea, however, was challenged by Mother Teresa who described death as ‘going home to God’ and that this life we live is only part of a journey that’s headed towards God.…
Death is something that every human must face. It is the inevitable conclusion to life and is something that humans have had to come to terms with since the dawn of their existence. This is very clear in many of the writings and stories that human beings have told throughout history. This obsession about the ultimate culmination of life is heavily expressed in literary works like The Epic of Gilgamesh, Virgil’s The Aeneid, and Beowulf.…
In the story, Everyman is the central character who represents mankind and everything that mankind experiences in life until the Day of Judgment. The story is shown as life lessons for others in the path they have chosen in their lives. Everyman meets different aspects of his life which are themes for humans. He first meets Death sent by god to deliver a message that his life is coming to an end. In response, Everyman tries to bribe Death with material possessions (Goods). Death has no value of these possessions, can’t be bribed, doesn’t wait for anyone, and his decision is final. No man can cheat death and ultimately avoid it, it is inevitable. Death tells Everyman to find someone to accompany him on his journey if he can and that is where the journey begins.…
According to Oxford dictionary, the word “death” is the action or fact of dying or being killed. When it’s going to happen is unknown, but when it does, it has a tremendous impact. The narrator, Death in The Book Thief, captures the idea of death which can be brought upon in many different situations, without our control "Of course, an introduction. A beginning. Where are my manners? I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me [narrator, death] well enough and soon enough" (4). Whether it is liked or not, death is inevitable. Even though dying is a normal part of existence, most people still fear it. Death should not cause people to live in trepidation or fright, but rather to live their lives with a…
First I am going to give a little bit of overview about how people other than myself feel about death and what they think death really is. “The word death comes from Old English deað, which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *dauþaz (reconstructed by etymological analysis). This comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dheu- meaning the 'Process, act, condition of dying'.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death) There are also said to be many different processes that actually consider someone dead. Physiological death is seen as a process not just an event. In this process there is a dividing line between life and death that depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs. Clinical death is not necessary or sufficient for a determination of legal death. Someone that has a working heart and lungs determined to be brain dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring. The medical definition of death becomes more problematic, paradoxically, as scientific knowledge and medicine advance. There are also different signs of death or strong indications that a person is no longer alive such as cessation of breathing, cardiac arrest, pallor mortis, livor mortis, algor mortis, rigor mortis, and decomposition. Cardiac arrest is having no pulse, pallor mortis is paleness which happens in the 15-120 minutes after death, livor mortis is a settling of the blood in the lower portion of the body, algor mortis is the reduction in body…
Of all human stages of development and transition, none of them has profound effect and overwhelming disturbance as death. The surviving members of the deceased’s family and other close loved ones are always at a loss and the grieving that ensues thereafter is of untold emotional torment (Sherman et al., 2003). On the spiritual perspective, death is mourned with the recluse and thought of continuance of life after death. Death is increasingly being viewed as a rite of passage and is not a finality as previously perceived in the preceding ages of our current generations. However, this perspective is speculative in nature for there is no living human being that has marched on with the personal study of the afterlife and come back to life in human…
Death is a dreaded word. It is a word that many people would not want to talk about. Death is considered a morbid word and many would not find this as an engaging topic. According to Patricelli (2007), “[d]eath remains a great mystery, one of the central issues with which religion and philosophy and science have wrestled since the beginning of human history. Even though dying is a natural part of existence, American culture is unique in the extent to which death is viewed as a taboo topic. Rather than having open discussions, we tend to view death as a feared enemy that can and should be defeated by modern medicine and machines”. There are also people that have negative connotations about death, rendering life even meaningless because of it. Death appears to render life meaningless for many people because they feel that there is no point in developing character or increasing knowledge if our progress is ultimately going to be thwarted by death (Augustine, 2000). But the author contends that there is a point in developing character and increasing knowledge before death overtakes us: to provide peace of mind and intellectual satisfaction to our lives and to the lives of those we care about for their own sake because pursuing these goals enriches our lives. From the fact that death is inevitable it does not follow that nothing we do matters now. On the contrary, our lives matter a great deal to us. If they did not, we would not find the idea of our own death so distressing--it wouldn't matter that our lives will come to an end. The fact that we're all eventually going to die has no relevance to whether our activities are worthwhile in the here and now: For an ill patient in a hospital a doctor's efforts to alleviate pain certainly does matter despite the fact that 'in the end' both the doctor and the patient will be dead (Augustine).…
It is a part of life that is inevitable. At birth, we are promised physical death. The hooded soul collector walks by our side everyday waiting for the slip up, carefully digging our grave, but one thing we don’t know if he is digging slowly with his hands to give us a full life or does he have a machine pulling up six feet of dirt in one swoop. At some point in time, everyone has to go through life's unlimited events. The biggest is definitely death, but how we finally handle our own demise may be different form others. In the end, one can come up with various excuses on how to deal with dying, but when someone is faced with death, their human instincts take over.…
Death is a necessity to culture and society therefore it is irrational to fear the unenviable and the necessary. Death whether physical or non-physical will always cause change. The change that is caused by death does not always have to be direct but can manifest itself as an indirect change. Throughout time societies have risen and fallen, times changes, nothing is ever going to stay the same. Death is a factor that will impact everyone who is alive as they will meet death. As society’s change and cultures evolve so do the people; to keep change occurring death must ensue for creation to occur. Society’s and cultures depend on death. Death is the drive of progression which drives society’s and cultures to get farther from the unetible death.…
Death is in the nature of human beings. It is an inevitable truth which levels the playing field in a sense. Rich and poor, weak and strong, Muslim and Christian all face an unavoidable earthly death at the end of their lives. The rich may be able to delay their fate while the poor cannot, but death is one thing which can be counted on. Earthly immortality cannot be achieved.…
1. Death is defined as the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person. However, now defining death has become much more complicated. Brain death is the neurological definition of death, which states that a person is brain dead when all electrical activity of the brain has stops from a specific period of time. Some critical decisions that may be made regarding life, death, and health care for dying individuals can involve a number of circumstances and issues, and individuals can use a living will to make these choices while they can still think clearly.…