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What is Death? - 11/4/2008 7:18:09 PM

candystripper

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With advancements in science frequently come more questiosns and less certainty. IMO, medicial science is rife with this phenom.

100 years ago, the question 'what is death' would probably have sounded dumb. Now, it's obviously more complex.

What is 'brain death'? If someone isn't altogether dead, aren't they alive? I have heard medical terms and phrases like ' the body does not all die at once' amd wonder how that could be -- if someone hasn't 'finshed dying' yet, how are they not alive? How could death be a process? Has there, with advances in science, also come confusion about what death itself actually is?

I know someone reading this might be tempted to discuss issues of 'medical ethics', but I hope for a discussion about whether 'death' itself could really have changed.
candystripper

< Message edited by candystripper -- 11/4/2008 7:22:18 PM >

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RE: What is Death? - 11/4/2008 7:35:39 PM

CalifChick

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quote:

ORIGINAL: candystripper

whether 'death' itself could really have changed.

No. When the brain stops functioning, the person is dead. Many parts of the body can stop working and the person is still alive.

Nothing about any of that has changed.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/4/2008 7:36:16 PM

rexrgisformidoni

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death in my own defintion will be when I quit having coherent thoughts. my body may still move, and I may look alive, but if my brain locks up and I am a rambling yelling man, then in my mind I am dead. please take me into a desert to die, don't keep me alive.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/4/2008 9:49:58 PM

MissSCD

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Death is the process of one's life coming to an end. I think the heart and brain should be equal, but it doesn't act that way sometimes.
That is the reason I am going to get a Living Will that will state no life support. I also want to either donate my body to science or be cremated. I don't want to be embaled and put in the ground which is contrary to my faith's belief system.

Regards, MissSCD

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RE: What is Death? - 11/4/2008 9:53:18 PM

Termyn8or

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Stramge timing. A few weeks ago I dreamt that I died. I was in a truck or SUV or something and a landslide came up, well down. I couldn't move or see anything but it was all blackness. Darkness in fact.

Then not much later came a sense of much greater darkness, something I had never experienced before. The feeling was quite unique, in a way I was glad it was over and I didn't have to deal with life anymore, but there was the other side, things I hadn't done etc. Yet it did not matter as I could not do anything.

They used to say if you die in a dream you really die, I am here to tell you that is not true. This was as dead as it gets. A total submission actually, to death. I had no thoughts of family or friends, just that it was the end of the run for me. I concentrated on the darkness and found it soothing. It is finally over, I never have to do anything anymore. They should understand, I am dead. The scary part is that I almost enjoyed it.

It was deep and profound enough that when I woke up in the morning I really wondered why, how could I be alive. This was so real. The dream of being dead actually invaded my concious mind, because I remember it vividly, and yes I remember darknes vividly. I could not believe that I was still alive. I am really not sure that I am. How can any of us be sure that we are actually living this life ? You, CM, my job, everything could be a figment of my imagination. Everything.

But you don't act upon that, it would be wrong. If this life is really what it is, it is not imagination because if it were, things would be better.

So it seems that I have not experienced death, but having dreamt about it I am obviously not afraid of it. Even though the dream only consisted of darkness, I am thinking that something happens, and that death is like a threshold to another plane of life.

I fear it not. Not at all.

T

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RE: What is Death? - 11/4/2008 10:58:05 PM

UncleNasty

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Rage, rage against the... Oh, Sorry.

Life to me is thought and feeling. To be without those will be death to me.

I have snatched life out of the jaws of death several times. Very exciting, but not recommended. Didn't Churchill say something along the lines of the most eciting experience he had ever had was to be shot at, and missed.

Uncle Nasty

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 12:03:42 AM

stella41b

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The moment of death for me is that moment when our spirit (energy) becomes completely disassociated with our body (matter) and leaves the material, physical plane. Neither technology nor medical science has come up with anything to be able to detect this moment but if you care to think about all what we do to detect signs of life in someone who might have died you will understand that we take death to be that moment where there is a body (matter) but no spirit (energy).

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 12:39:12 AM

meatcleaver

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When the conscious mind ceases to be which is probably a prompt to start a philosophical discussion.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 12:53:22 AM

JustDarkness

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death

for some the end
for others a begin

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 12:54:45 AM

RealSub58

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Superb thoughts stella!I, like UncleNasty, have indeed snatched life out of the jaws of death several times. Very exciting, but not recommended. While I watched my father then grandfather draw their last breath, their spirit evaporated from their eyes as well.Their hands which I help suddenly had no life, the life that previously barely held my hand as they were ushered away to a life where God was waiting.A very different phenomenon than those brain dead yet kept alive on the machines of modern technology.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 12:57:50 AM

RCdc

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Brain death is the 'finality'. All organs etc shut down bit by bit but until they can do full on brain transplants...
Death is the only inevitability.

the.dark.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 1:08:53 AM

Aneirin

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Death to me is when the body I have suddenly becomes 22 grammes lighter

I could speculate on all sorts of things which could be a living death, but I don't know what possibilities exist so I cannot make judgements based upon what I don't know. Life is a journey, a constant exploration of experience, every state of life is experience and experience, adventure I seek. Death as we know it will come, but I do not fear it, it is part of life.

In nature, the death of a thing gives way to new life on whatever scale, but with death, life comes the two are inextricably linked.

< Message edited by Aneirin -- 11/5/2008 1:09:27 AM >

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 3:23:44 AM

candystripper

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Man, there are some deep thinkers on this board.

Is 'death' no longer a medical, observable conditon?

Is 'death' going to be 'curable' someday?

Has it mutated into a legal matter (Living Will)?

Or a personal choice (kept alive against your will).

Or a philosphical queston, as 'the nature of man' is?

What does it 'feel like' to die'? Is there a question about what it 'feels like' to 'be' dead?

If there is 'another side' do we have any sense of identity in it? Does it last 'eternally'?

You guys rock.

candystripper

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 7:35:18 AM

sub4hire

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Death may be curable someday. There was a time when we could not replace a heart. Which meant uncertain death when it failed.

The time may come when we can replace a brain. In the future.

A living will is only as good as the paper it in printed on depending on when and where you die. I have watched 3 family members die who had living wills. Who did not want to be kept alive artificially. When the time came it was up to me to fight to allow them to die.

I've been clinically dead on more than one occasion in my life. I felt nothing. I did not see anything. By clinically dead I mean I had no heart beat.

I know some of my loved ones have been with me after their death's. There comes a time when I believe they can no longer come back. Though, beyond knowing what personally has happened to me I see no real evidence of it.

No idea on your other questions.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 7:47:28 AM

JumpingJax

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quote:

ORIGINAL: candystripper

Is 'death' no longer a medical, observable conditon?

Is 'death' going to be 'curable' someday?

I have a friend who I must add is a very Intelligent person. He believes that barring some type of accident that he will most likely live to be around 200. He is around 30 now. His belief is that by the time old age were to set in on him say 40 years from now that medical science will be at a point where they will be able to just replace any body part that is broken. For whatever reason he believes around the age of 200 that it will be to much on the body and it will just completely break down.

Sounds far fetch to me - but you never know.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 7:59:24 AM

colouredin

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quote:

ORIGINAL: stella41b

The moment of death for me is that moment when our spirit (energy) becomes completely disassociated with our body (matter) and leaves the material, physical plane. Neither technology nor medical science has come up with anything to be able to detect this moment but if you care to think about all what we do to detect signs of life in someone who might have died you will understand that we take death to be that moment where there is a body (matter) but no spirit (energy).

I agree with this, to me death only refers to the physical body failing, like a broken computer just because you cant access the infomation stored on it any more doesnt mean that its vanished only the way by which we are used to viewing it has gone

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 8:02:55 AM

JumpingJax

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quote:

ORIGINAL: colouredin

I agree with this, to me death only refers to the physical body failing, like a broken computer just because you cant access the infomation stored on it any more doesnt mean that its vanished only the way by which we are used to viewing it has gone

So when I die, can we remove my hard drive and place it another and give me a new life to live? If so I'm all for it.

Death is probably more when your Operating System fails.... So the question you have to really ask yourself is are you a Windows or a Mac user?

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 8:05:17 AM

colouredin

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Well I think that the infomation (energy) simply moves to something else

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 8:12:17 AM

Dnomyar

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Let's say that death is curable. Your 100 years old and your death is prolonged. Look at your wrinkled prune body. Now what.

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RE: What is Death? - 11/5/2008 8:14:51 AM

colouredin

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A friend of mines nan said (vague quote) "as a girl i looked after myself, didnt eat too many cakes or get too many grass stains, now im old, my body has fallen to pieces and I wish that I had lived 20 years less, eaten more cakes and got more grass stains"

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