Chapter-1
DEATH: A NECESSARY END
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.
– Genesis 3:19. C. 800 B.C.
The word death comes from the Proto-Indo-European stern dheu-meaning the “Process, act, condition of dying.” Other socially accepted term for death are – expired, passed away, passed on or deceased. Deprived of life, the dead person is then referred as a corpse, a cadaver or a dead body. Death is the cessation of all biological function that sustains a living organism. Phenomena which bring about death include biological aging (Senescence), predation, starvation, disease, suicide, murder and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury.
Senescence
Almost all animals who survive external hazards eventual die from biological aging, known in life sciences as “senescence”. One of the very few known possible exceptions is the jelly fish Turritopsis nutricula, thought to be, in effect, immortal. From all causes, roughly 150,000 people die around the world each day. Of these, two thirds die directly or indirectly due to senescence (old age). In the developed countries nearly nine out of ten (90%) of all deaths are related to old age. Cells are the basis of all life, from thousands of different bacteria to thousands upon thousands of different animals and plants. Most cells age and die. A few primitive organisms like hydra, exhibit very slow or negligible aging.
When does death begin? Perhaps at birth. Some two thousands years ago Marcus Aurelius, roman emperor – Philosopher wrote : “Make how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man – yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes.” Life has no inherent claim to eternity.
Signs of Biological Death
Signs of death or strong indications that a person is no longer alive are:
- Cessation of breathing
- Cardiac arrest (no pulse)
- Pallar mortis, paleness which happens in the 15-120 minutes after death.
- Livor mortis, a settling of blood in the lower (dependent) portion of the body.
- Algor mortis, the reduction in body temperature following death.
- Rigor mortis, the limbs of the corpse become stiff (Latin-rigor) and difficult to move or manipulate.
- Decomposition, the reduction into simpler forms of matter, accompanied by a strong, unpleasant odor.
Defining Death
One of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life. This is because there is little consensus over how to define life.
It is possible to define life in terms of consciousness. When consciousness ceases, a living organism can be said to have died. But there are many organisms which are alive but not conscious, for example a single cell organism. Many religious traditions, hold that death does not or may not entail the end of consciousness. In certain cultures, death is a process than a single event. It implies a slow shift from one spiritual state to another.
Today, doctors and medical examiners usually turn to “brain death” or “biological death” to define a person being dead. People are considered dead when electrical activity in their brain ceases. An EEG (Electro Encephalo Gram) is used to differentiate between unconsciousness (coma) and complete lack of electrical activity of the brain (death). At present, the more conservative definition of death is – “irreversible cessation of electrical activity in the whole brain, as opposed to just the neo-cortex.” (Uniform Determination of Death Act in the United States).
There are many anecdotal references to people bring declared dead by physicians and then “coming back to life”. Writing in 1895, the physician J. C. Ouseley claimed that as many as 2,700 people were buried prematurely each year in England and Wales, although others estimate the figure to be closer to 800.
In cases of electric shock, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for an hour or longer can allow stunned nerves to recover, allowing an apparently dead person to survive. People found unconscious under ice water may survive if their faces are kept continuously cold until they arrive at an emergency room. This “diving response” in which metabolic activity and oxygen requirements of the body are minimal, is something humans share with marine animals like – whales and dolphins called “mammalion diving reflex.”
As medical technologies advance, ideas about when death occurs may have be re-evaluated in light of the ability to restore a person to life after longer periods of apparent death.
The lack of electrical brain activity may not be enough to consider someone scientifically dead.
Causes of Death
Roughly 150,000 people die each day across the globe. The leading cause of death in developing countries is infectious diseases. Poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, poor nutrition and lack of medical care makes death from infectious diseases more common in under developed than in developed countries. The leading causes of death in developed countries are heart disease and stroke, cancer and old age. Causes of death are different in different parts of the world. In high-income, middle-income countries, predominantly people die of chronic diseases. In low-income countries, people predominantly die of infectious diseases, and more than a third of all deaths are among children under 15 (World Health Organization).
Location of Death
Before about 1930, most people in Western countries died in their homes, surrounded by family, and comforted by clergy, neighbors, and doctors making house calls. By the mid-20th century, half of all Americans died in a hospital. By the start of 21st century, only about 20 to 25% of people in developed countries died at home. The shift away from dying at home towards dying in a medical facility, has been termed the “Invisible Death”, as people no longer see somebody dying. In the poorer countries, most people still die at home, even though the percentage of people dying in a hospital is slowly increasing.
Death Tolls
Estimated deaths with in estimated length of time.
5 seconds …. 70,000 atomic bomb, Hiroshima, 1945
1 hour …. 12,000, British army at Battle of the Somme, France, 1916.
7 hours …. 230,000 Indian Ocean earth quake and tsunami, 2001
1 day …. 10,000, Auschwitz gas chambers, daily average, May- July 1944
3 months …. 800,000, Rowandan genocide, 1994
1 year …. 30 million, influenza pandemic, World 1918-1919
4 years …. 30 million, famine during Great Leap Forward China 1959-1962
5 years …. 30 million, Black Death, Europe, 1347-51 Lapham’s Quaterly, Vol VI, Fall 2013 P. 32
Religious and Cultural Beliefs on Death
Different religions and cultures greatly affect our perception and views about life and death. Death is the center of many cultures. Customs relating to death are a feature of every religion and every culture. Much of this evolves around the care of the dead, as well as after life and the disposal of the bodies after death.
Ancient Egypt
The Book of Dead, include the general body of religious texts which deal with the welfare of the dead and their new life in the world beyond the grave. They have existed and have been in use among the Egyptians from about 4000 B.C to the early centuries of the Christian era. The Egyptians believed that these texts had been composed by the god of Wisdom, Thoth.
The body, Egyptians believed was inhabited by a small replica of itself called the Ka, and also by a soul. All of these – body, Ka and soul – survived the appearance of death. They could escape mortality, if they came before god Osiris (the god of beneficent Nile) clean of all sin and would be permitted to live forever in the “Happy Field of Food”. Osiris could question the dead, weighing each candidate’s heart in the scale against a feather to test his truthfulness.
According to the priests there were clever ways of passing the tests. One was to fit up the tomb with food, drink and servants to nourish and help the dead. A still better way was to buy the Book of Dead, scrolls for which the priests had written prayers, formulas and charm calculated to appease, even to deceive, Osiris. Amulets and incantations were designed and sold by the clergy to cover multitude of sins. Mummification was common for the noble deeds.
According to the Hindus, the soul (atman) never dies. It is immortal. Like a worn out garment, it just changes the body.
Worn-out garments
Are shed by the body:
Worn-out bodies
Are shed by the dweller
Within the body
– Bhagavad Gita
Based on this transmigration concept of the soul, an individual is not really an individual, but a link in the chain of life. And if the soul is immortal, how could one short life determine its fate forever?
Most Hindus prefer that their terminally-ill loved one die at home. Family members sing, pray and read scriptures to help the dying individual focus on Brahman. The upper castes Hindus burn their dead in an open fire (cremation) and others usually bury it.
Buddhists like the Hindus believe in the Law of Karma and the concept of reincarnation. Japanese attitudes toward death is influenced by Zen Buddhism, Confucianism and Shinto. Chinese attitudes are influenced by Buddhism, Taoism and most of all Confucianism. All these religions discourage anxiety about death.
For them life and death are crucial partners: they make each other possible.
The Chinese, the Japanese and other south East Asians have great respect for their dead, honoring them regularly with offerings and prayers.
In Tibet, the dead body is dismembered and left outside away from the dwellings. The dead body provides sustenance to the birds of prey. It represents a perfect Buddhist act known as Jhator.
Middle East
Like the Hindu’s god of death Yama, Jewish religious literatures (Midrash) mention the “Angel of Death”. “One may not escape the Angel of Death, nor say to him. “Wait until I put my affairs in order”, or “There is my son my slave: take him instead”. Where the Angel of Death appears, there is no remedy (Talmud, Ned 499). If one who has sinned has confessed his fault, the Angel of Death may not touch him (Midrash Tanhuna).
In Islam, Death is represented by Azrel, Malakal – Mawt (Angel of Death one of God’s archangels is an angel of highest rank). When Azarel comes to take the soul of a person he can appear in a good looking form for a good person or a terrifying form for an evil person.
Christianity and Western Culture
Western Christians attitude towards death has been influenced by the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans and the Jews. Unlike Judaism, Christianity believes in after life, in Heaven or Hell depending on one’s conduct on earth and belief and disbelief in God. The believers are supposed to face ‘death’ without fear and gain eternal life in heaven. It is believed that the body itself is a gift from god. Hence taking one’s own life is considered a sin. Because the body is considered a gift from God, it should be celebrated and honored. Hence the funeral services are usually elaborate. Like the Jews and the Muslims, Christians bury their dead, following special rituals. Recently, cremation is becoming more popular.
Suicide
Suicide in general is more acceptable in the Eastern Cultures than in the West. In Japan, for example, ending life with honor by Seppuku (-to cut one’s abdomen) is considered a desirable death. In Jainism and Hinduism, starving oneself to death is quite acceptable. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, suicide is considered a sin.
Conclusion
Our attitude towards death varies from culture to culture. They have also evolved over time. Our ancestors died from starvation, plague and pestilence, we die from diseases and old age. But we still die. I like the attitude of the first essayist Michel de Montaign (1573) toward death:
“All the time you live you steal from life; living is at life’s expense. The constant work of your life is to build death. You are in death while you are in life, for you are after death when you are no longer in life.
… The advantage of living is not measured by length but by use; some men have lived long and lived little; attend to it while you are in it.
… You have seen enough men who were better off for dying, thereby avoiding great miseries.” (Aquitaine, Living at Lie’s Expense, 1573)
Quotations on Death and Dying
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! – Isaiah 22:13, (Bible 800 B.C)
Account no man happy till he dies – Euripides 415 B.C?
Nobody sir, dies willingly. – Antiphanes, 370 B.C
For one that is born death is certain and birth is certain for one that has died. Therefore, the thing being unavoidable thou should not mourn. – Bhagavad Gita, Hindu-Scripture
This body is decaying! A nest of diseases, a heap of corruption, bound to destruction, to dissolution. All life ends in death. – Dhammapada 11:148-Buddhist Scripture
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways – I to die, and you to live. Which is better, only the god knows. -Socrates, 399 BC
Death is punishment to some, to some a gift, too many a favor. – Seneca 55 B.C – 40 A.D
All men are equal in the presence of death. -Publius Syrus, 1st Century A.D
Can we not live without pleasure; we cannot but with pleasure die? – Tertullian, C.215 A.D
Long life and short life are made all one by death. – Michel De Montaigne 1573 A.D
Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life cuts off so many years of fearing death. – William Shakespeare, 1599
There is a fullness of time when men should go, and not occupy too long the ground to which others have a right to advance. -Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1811
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me die.
– Robert Louis Stevenson, 1887
Death is a black camel that Kneels at every man’s gate. – Turkish Proverb
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter. – Winston Churchill on his 75th birthday
It’s not that I’m afraid to die; I just don’t want to be there when it happens. – Woody Allen
Benjamin Franklin’s Epitaph (1729)
The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin, Printer
(Like the cover of an old book,
It contents torn out,
And strip of its lettering and gilding,
Lies food for worms:
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believed) appear once more
In a new
And more beautiful edition,
Corrected and amended
By
The Author
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death
- Lampham’s Quaterly, “Death”; American Agora Foundation, New York: Vol. VI, No. 4, Fall, 2013
- Durant Will, The Story of Civilization I. Our Oriental Heritage, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951