Death is the termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. It will eventually afflict all living things. Death refers both to a particular event and to the condition that results thereby. The true nature of the latter has, for millennia, been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical enquiry. Belief in some kind of afterlife or rebirth is a central aspect of many religious traditions.

Phenomena which commonly bring about death include predation (for non-human species), malnutrition, disease, or accidents resulting in terminal physical injury. When species come into conflict, extinction, the death of all members of one species can occur. Human activity has, in recent times, accelerated this process with the destruction of ecosystems as a consequence of the widening spread of industrial technology.

If death does not first occur due to other causes, humans and the vast majority of other animals will eventually die from senescence ("old age"). Remarkable exceptions include the hydra and the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula, both thought to escape ageing (possessing biological immortality).

Causes of human death specifically resulting from intentional human activity include suicide, homicide, and war. From all causes, roughly 150,000 people die each day across the globe.

Physiological death is now seen as less an event than a process: conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible. Where in the process a dividing line is drawn between life and death depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs. In general, clinical death is neither necessary nor sufficient for a determination of legal death. A patient with working heart and lungs determined to be brain dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring. Precise medical definition of death, in other words, becomes more problematic, paradoxically, as scientific knowledge and technology advance.

Death is the permanent end of the life of a biological organism. Death may refer to the end of life as either an event or condition. In many cultures and in the arts, death is considered a being or otherwise personified, wherein it is usually capitalized as "Death".

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
• 2 Unsourced
  • 2.1 Living with death - quotes and anecdotes
  • 2.2 Coming to terms with death
  • 2.3 Death
  • 2.4 Death and relationships
  • 2.5 Death and the meaning of life
  • 2.6 Others
  • 2.7 Humor
• 3 See also
• 4 External links

Sourced

• A free society, to be truly worthy of that name, owes healthy, competent individuals the right to end their lives on their own terms.
  • Jacob M. Appel, American physician and bioethicist, Next: Assisted Suicide for Healthy People, July 16, 2009.

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Thu Feb 18 12:22:19 2010