Death
hideDeath is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. It refers to both 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. Many religions maintain faith in either some kind of afterlife or reincarnation. The effect of physical death on any possible mind or soul remains for many an open question.
Animals almost without exception (see hydra) die in due course from senescence. Intervening phenomena which commonly bring death earlier include malnutrition, predation, disease, accidents resulting in terminal physical injury, or, in extreme circumstances, grave ecosystem disruption. Intentional human activity causing death includes suicide, homicide, and war. Roughly 150,000 people die each day across the globe. Death in the natural world can also occur as an indirect result of human activity: an increasing cause of species depletion in recent times has been destruction of ecological systems as a consequence of the widening spread of industrial technology.
Death in this context 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.
For more information about Death, read the full article at
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News tagged with death
Now hear this: Mouse study sheds light on hearing loss in older adults
Nov 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Becoming "hard of hearing" is a standard but unfortunate part of aging: A syndrome called age-related hearing loss affects about 40 percent of people over 65 in the United States, and will afflict an estimated ...
Researchers link health-care debate to risk of dying in US and Europe
Nov 06, 2009 |
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The current health care debate in the United States is complicated. Trade-offs between heath care expenditures, lifestyle choices and life expectancy have been suggested but seldom clearly demonstrated. The U.S. spends on ...
The first casualty of war: Study finds news reports match misperception of civilian deaths
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Nov 06, 2009 |
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Researchers reporting in BioMed Central's open access journal Conflict and Health found that the discrepancy in media reporting of casualty numbers in the Iraq conflict can potentially misinform the public and contribute to dis ...
Newly Discovered Fat Molecule: An Undersea Killer with an Upside
Nov 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found by collaborating scientists at Rutgers University and the Woods Hole ...
Side effects not always due to swine flu shot
Oct 31, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Hundreds of people on any given day will die, develop the paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome or have spontaneous abortions, and that doesn't necessarily mean that their swine flu vaccination shot was to blame, a ...
Swine flu deaths jump by 700 in a week: WHO
Oct 30, 2009 |
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The number of swine flu deaths jumped by 700 in a week, reaching more than 5,700 worldwide since the virus was first uncovered in April, World Health Organisation data indicated Friday.
Patients starting dialysis have increased risk of death
Oct 27, 2009 |
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Compared to the general population, patients starting dialysis have an increased risk of death that is not attributable to a higher rate of death from cardiovascular causes, as previously thought, according to a study in ...
Legal counsel affects death penalty cases
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Oct 27, 2009 |
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Legal counsel is a matter of life and death in Houston, but it is not necessarily tied to a defendant's socioeconomic status, according to new research by Scott Phillips, associate professor of sociology and criminology at ...
Packages of care for alcohol use disorders in low- and middle-income countries
Oct 27, 2009 |
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In the latest article in PLoS Medicine's series proposing the delivery of "packages of care" for mental, neurological and substance-use disorders in low- and middle-income countries, Vivek Benegal and colleagues discuss the tr ...
Messenger RNA with FLASH
Oct 22, 2009 |
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A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified a key player in a molecular process essential for DNA replication within cells.
Male Australian redback spiders employ courtship strategies to preserve their life
Oct 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- New research shows that male suitors of a female cannibalistic spider risk facing a premature death unless they perform an adequate courtship lasting a minimum of 100 minutes. Further, the research shows ...
Could drugs for mood disorders, pain and epilepsy cause psychiatric disorders later in life?
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 20, 2009 |
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Young animals treated with commonly-prescribed drugs develop behavioral abnormalities in adulthood say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center. The drugs tested include those used to treat epilepsy, mood disorders ...
Sperm donor passed on sudden death heart defect
Oct 20, 2009 |
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(AP) -- A sperm donor passed on a potentially deadly genetic heart condition to nine of his 24 children, including one who died at age 2 from heart failure, according to a medical journal report.
Lung scintigraphy more reliable than CTA in excluding pulmonary embolism in pregnant patients
Oct 20, 2009 |
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A medical imaging procedure known as lung scintigraphy may be more reliable than pulmonary CT angiography (CTA) for identifying or excluding pulmonary embolism (PE) in pregnant patients, according to a study published in ...
Researchers optimizing progesterone for brain injury treatment
Oct 19, 2009 |
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As doctors begin to test progesterone for traumatic brain injury at sites across the country, researchers are looking ahead to optimizing the hormone's effectiveness.
