Defining Death: Determining the Point at Which Life Ends Death Education: Preparing for the Inevitable?

Defining Death: Determining the Point at Which Life Ends

What is death? Defining the point at which life ceases is surprisingly complex. Difficulty in establishing legal and medical definitions of death may reflect changes in understanding and attitudes that occur over the course of people’s lives.

Defining Death Functional deathBrain deathLegal death

Functional death is defined as the cessation of heartbeat and respiration; brain death is defined by the absence of electrical brain waves. The definition of death has changed as medical advances allow us to resuscitate people who would once have been considered dead. Some medical experts believe that death occurs when a person can again live anything resembling a human life.

Once an individual no longer has a heartbeat or breathing, he or she is said to have experienced a ______________. a. functional death b. system shutdown c. brain death d. legal death

It is impossible to restore functioning or resuscitate a person after brain death occurs. True False

Do you think people who have lost the ability to think, feel, and experience the world, but still have detectable brain waves, should be declared dead? Why or why not? What criteria would you apply to the definition of death?

Death Across the Life Span: Causes and Reactions

Should children be shielded from death?

Death across the Life Span: Causes and Reactions infancy and childhood –Miscarriage –Still birth –Sudden infant death (SIDS) –Accidents –Homicides Parental reactions to death of child

Death across the Life Span: Causes and Reactions Childhood –No concept of death until around the age of 5 –Around the age of 5, better understanding of finality and irreversibility of death –By about age 9, acceptance of universality and finality of death –By middle childhood, understanding of some customs involved with death (e.g., funerals, cremation, and cemeteries)

Death across the Life Span: Causes and Reactions Adolescence –View of death are often unrealistic – Sense of invincibility –Personal fable –Imaginary audience Terminal illness –Denial –Depression Adolescents’ views of death may be highly romanticized and dramatic.

Death across the Life Span: Causes and Reactions Young adulthood –Prime time of life –Death seems unthinkable –Creates feelings of anger and impatience Concerns –Desire to develop intimate relationships and express sexuality –Future planning

Death across the Life Span: Causes and Reactions Middle adulthood –Life-threatening disease not surprising –Fear of death often greatest Causes –Heart attack or stroke most frequent cause

Death across the Life Span: Causes and Reactions Late adulthood –Realize death is imminent –Face an increasing number of deaths in their environment –Less anxious about dying Causes –Cancer, stroke, and heart disease –Terminal decline

Differing Conceptions of Death Reactions to death are diverse Dependent on values that reflect cultural and subcultural beliefs Often shared through religious beliefs Differing conceptions of death lead to different rituals, as this ceremony in India illustrates.

The death of an infant or young child can be particularly difficult for parents, and for an adolescent death appears to be unthinkable. Cultural differences in attitudes and beliefs about death strongly influence people’s reactions to it.

In spite of its economic wealth, the United States has a relatively high infant mortality rate. True False

Parents’ extreme reaction to their child’s death is partly based on the sense that the natural order of the world in which children “should” outlive their parents has now been violated. True False

Do you think people who are going to die should be told? Does your response depend on the person’s age?

Death Education: Preparing for the Inevitable?

Thanatologists Study death and dying Suggest that death education should be a component of everyone’s education

What is death education? Death education encompasses programs that teach about death, dying, and grief –Crisis intervention education –Routine death education –Education for members of the helping professions

Do you agree? Death education should be mandated for all college students.

Thanatologists recommend that death education become a normal part of learning to help people understand one of the most universal, and certain, of all human experiences.

______________are people who study death and dying. a. Cytologists b. Neuropathologists c. Thanatologists d. Teratologists

Emergency counseling provided within schools to help students deal with sudden events such as the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is known as: ______. a. routine death education b. thanatology training c. crisis intervention education d. demystification training

Do you think schools should teach preteens and adolescents about suicide? Are there disadvantages to teaching this age group about suicide, or is it best to deal with the topic early?