La muerte es el cese permanente e irreversible de todas las funciones biológicas que sustentan a un organismo vivo . [1] La muerte cerebral a veces se usa como una definición legal de muerte. [2] Los restos de un organismo previamente vivo normalmente comienzan a descomponerse poco después de la muerte. [3] La muerte es un proceso universal e inevitable que eventualmente ocurre en todos los organismos vivos.
La muerte se aplica generalmente a organismos completos; el proceso similar que se observa en los componentes individuales de un organismo vivo, como las células o los tejidos, es la necrosis . Algo que no se considera un organismo vivo, como un virus , puede destruirse físicamente pero no se dice que muera.
A principios del siglo XXI, más de 150.000 humanos mueren cada día. [4] [5]
Muchas culturas y religiones tienen la idea de una vida después de la muerte , y también pueden tener la idea de juzgar las buenas y las malas acciones en la vida de uno ( cielo , infierno , karma ).
Diagnóstico
Problemas de definición
El concepto de muerte es clave para la comprensión humana del fenómeno. [6] Hay muchos enfoques científicos y diversas interpretaciones del concepto. Además, el advenimiento de la terapia de soporte vital y los numerosos criterios para definir la muerte desde un punto de vista médico y legal, han dificultado la creación de una única definición unificadora.
Uno de los desafíos para definir la muerte es distinguirla de la vida . Como punto en el tiempo, la muerte parecería referirse al momento en que termina la vida. Es difícil determinar cuándo ha ocurrido la muerte, ya que el cese de las funciones vitales a menudo no es simultáneo en todos los sistemas de órganos. [7] Tal determinación, por lo tanto, requiere trazar límites conceptuales precisos entre la vida y la muerte. Esto es difícil, debido a que hay poco consenso sobre cómo definir la vida.
Es posible definir la vida en términos de conciencia. Cuando cesa la conciencia, se puede decir que un organismo vivo ha muerto. Uno de los defectos de este enfoque es que hay muchos organismos vivos pero probablemente no conscientes (por ejemplo, organismos unicelulares). Otro problema es definir la conciencia, que tiene muchas definiciones diferentes dadas por científicos, psicólogos y filósofos modernos. Además, muchas tradiciones religiosas, incluidas las tradiciones abrahámica y dhármica , sostienen que la muerte no implica (o puede que no) el fin de la conciencia. En ciertas culturas, la muerte es más un proceso que un solo evento. Implica un lento cambio de un estado espiritual a otro. [8]
Otras definiciones de muerte se centran en el carácter de cesación de algo. [9] [se necesita aclaración ] Más específicamente, la muerte ocurre cuando una entidad viviente experimenta el cese irreversible de todo funcionamiento. [10] En lo que respecta a la vida humana, la muerte es un proceso irreversible en el que alguien pierde su existencia como persona. [10]
Históricamente, los intentos de definir el momento exacto de la muerte de un ser humano han sido subjetivos o imprecisos. La muerte se definió una vez como el cese de los latidos del corazón ( paro cardíaco ) y de la respiración , pero el desarrollo de la RCP y la desfibrilación inmediata han hecho que esa definición sea inadecuada porque la respiración y los latidos del corazón a veces pueden reiniciarse. Este tipo de muerte donde ocurre un paro circulatorio y respiratorio se conoce como la definición circulatoria de muerte (DCDD). Los defensores del DCDD creen que esta definición es razonable porque una persona con pérdida permanente de la función circulatoria y respiratoria debe considerarse muerta. [11] Los críticos de esta definición afirman que si bien el cese de estas funciones puede ser permanente, no significa que la situación sea irreversible, porque si se aplicaba RCP, la persona podría revivir. [11] Por lo tanto, los argumentos a favor y en contra de la DCDD se reducen a una cuestión de definir las palabras reales "permanente" e "irreversible", lo que complica aún más el desafío de definir la muerte. Además, los sucesos que estuvieron vinculados causalmente a la muerte en el pasado ya no matan en todas las circunstancias; sin un corazón o pulmones que funcionen, la vida a veces se puede mantener con una combinación de dispositivos de soporte vital , trasplantes de órganos y marcapasos artificiales .
Hoy en día, donde se requiere una definición del momento de la muerte, los médicos y forenses suelen recurrir a la "muerte cerebral" o la "muerte biológica" para definir a una persona como muerta; las personas se consideran muertas cuando cesa la actividad eléctrica en su cerebro. Se presume que el final de la actividad eléctrica indica el final de la conciencia . La suspensión de la conciencia debe ser permanente y no transitoria, como ocurre durante ciertas etapas del sueño , y especialmente en el coma . En el caso del sueño, los EEG pueden notar fácilmente la diferencia.
Algunos estudiosos consideran problemática la categoría de "muerte cerebral". Por ejemplo, el Dr. Franklin Miller, miembro principal de la facultad del Departamento de Bioética de los Institutos Nacionales de Salud, señala: "A fines de la década de 1990 ... la ecuación de la muerte cerebral con la muerte del ser humano fue cuestionada cada vez más por académicos, basados en sobre la evidencia con respecto a la variedad de funciones biológicas mostradas por pacientes diagnosticados correctamente con esta afección que se mantuvieron con ventilación mecánica durante períodos de tiempo sustanciales. Estos pacientes mantuvieron la capacidad de mantener la circulación y la respiración, controlar la temperatura, excretar desechos, curar heridas, luchar infecciones y, más dramáticamente, para gestar fetos (en el caso de mujeres embarazadas con "muerte cerebral") ". [12]
Si bien algunos estudiosos consideran que la "muerte cerebral" es problemática, ciertamente hay quienes la proponen que creen que esta definición de muerte es la más razonable para distinguir la vida de la muerte. El razonamiento detrás del apoyo a esta definición es que la muerte encefálica tiene un conjunto de criterios que es confiable y reproducible. [13] Además, el cerebro es crucial para determinar nuestra identidad o quiénes somos como seres humanos. Debe hacerse la distinción de que la "muerte cerebral" no puede equipararse con alguien que está en estado vegetativo o coma, ya que la primera situación describe un estado que está más allá de la recuperación. [13]
Aquellas personas que sostienen que solo el neocórtex del cerebro es necesario para la conciencia a veces argumentan que solo se debe considerar la actividad eléctrica al definir la muerte. Eventualmente es posible que el criterio de muerte sea la pérdida permanente e irreversible de la función cognitiva , como lo demuestra la muerte de la corteza cerebral . Toda esperanza de recuperar el pensamiento y la personalidad humanos se desvanece dada la tecnología médica actual y previsible. En la actualidad, en la mayoría de los lugares se ha adoptado la definición más conservadora de muerte: cese irreversible de la actividad eléctrica en todo el cerebro, a diferencia de solo en la neocórtex (por ejemplo, la Ley de determinación uniforme de la muerte en los Estados Unidos). . En 2005, el caso Terri Schiavo llevó la cuestión de la muerte cerebral y el sustento artificial al frente de la política estadounidense .
Incluso con criterios de todo el cerebro, la determinación de la muerte cerebral puede resultar complicada. Los EEG pueden detectar impulsos eléctricos espurios, mientras que ciertos medicamentos , como la hipoglucemia , la hipoxia o la hipotermia, pueden suprimir o incluso detener la actividad cerebral de forma temporal. Debido a esto, los hospitales tienen protocolos para determinar la muerte cerebral que involucra EEG a intervalos muy separados en condiciones definidas.
En el pasado, la adopción de esta definición de todo el cerebro fue una conclusión de la Comisión Presidencial para el Estudio de Problemas Éticos en Medicina e Investigación Biomédica y del Comportamiento en 1980. [14] Concluyeron que este enfoque para definir la muerte era suficiente para alcanzar un uniforme definición a nivel nacional. Se presentaron una multitud de razones para apoyar esta definición, incluyendo: uniformidad de estándares en la ley para establecer la muerte; consumo de los recursos fiscales de una familia para soporte vital artificial; y establecimiento legal para equiparar la muerte cerebral con la muerte a fin de proceder con la donación de órganos. [15]
Aparte de la cuestión del apoyo o la disputa contra la muerte encefálica, hay otro problema inherente a esta definición categórica: la variabilidad de su aplicación en la práctica médica. En 1995, la Academia Estadounidense de Neurología (AAN) estableció un conjunto de criterios que se convirtió en el estándar médico para diagnosticar la muerte neurológica. En ese momento, se tenían que satisfacer tres características clínicas para determinar el "cese irreversible" del cerebro total, que incluían: coma con etiología clara, cese de la respiración y falta de reflejos del tronco encefálico. [16] Este conjunto de criterios se actualizó nuevamente más recientemente en 2010, pero aún existen discrepancias sustanciales entre los hospitales y las especialidades médicas. [dieciséis]
El problema de definir la muerte es especialmente imperativo en lo que respecta a la regla del donante muerto , que podría entenderse como una de las siguientes interpretaciones de la regla: debe haber una declaración oficial de muerte en una persona antes de comenzar la obtención de órganos o esa obtención de órganos. no puede resultar en la muerte del donante. [11] Una gran controversia ha rodeado la definición de muerte y la regla del donante muerto. Los defensores de la regla creen que la regla es legítima para proteger a los donantes de órganos y al mismo tiempo contrarrestar cualquier objeción moral o legal a la obtención de órganos. Los críticos, por otro lado, creen que la regla no defiende los mejores intereses de los donantes y que la regla no promueve efectivamente la donación de órganos. [11]
Señales
Los signos de muerte o fuertes indicios de que un animal de sangre caliente ya no está vivo son:
- Parada respiratoria (no respirar )
- Paro cardíaco (sin pulso )
- Muerte cerebral (sin actividad neuronal)
Las etapas que siguen después de la muerte son:
- Palor mortis , palidez que ocurre entre los 15 y 120 minutos posteriores a la muerte
- Algor mortis , la reducción de la temperatura corporal después de la muerte. Por lo general, se trata de una disminución constante hasta alcanzar la temperatura ambiente
- Rigor mortis , las extremidades del cadáver se vuelven rígidas ( rigor latino) y difíciles de mover o manipular.
- Livor mortis , un asentamiento de la sangre en la parte inferior (dependiente) del cuerpo.
- Putrefacción , los primeros signos de descomposición.
- Descomposición , la reducción a formas más simples de materia, acompañada de un olor fuerte y desagradable.
- Esqueletización , el final de la descomposición, donde todos los tejidos blandos se han descompuesto, dejando solo el esqueleto.
- Fosilización , la preservación natural de los restos esqueléticos formados durante un período muy largo.
Legal
La muerte de una persona tiene consecuencias legales que pueden variar entre diferentes jurisdicciones. Un certificado de defunción se emite en la mayoría de las jurisdicciones, ya sea por un médico o por una oficina administrativa al presentar la declaración de defunción de un médico.
Mal diagnosticado
Hay muchas referencias anecdóticas a personas que fueron declaradas muertas por los médicos y luego "volvieron a la vida", a veces días después en su propio ataúd, o cuando los procedimientos de embalsamamiento están a punto de comenzar. Desde mediados del siglo XVIII en adelante, hubo un aumento en el temor del público a ser enterrado vivo por error, [17] y mucho debate sobre la incertidumbre de los signos de la muerte. Se hicieron varias sugerencias para probar los signos de vida antes del entierro , desde verter vinagre y pimienta en la boca del cadáver hasta aplicar pinchazos al rojo vivo en los pies o en el recto . [18] Escribiendo en 1895, el médico JC Ouseley afirmó que hasta 2.700 personas fueron enterradas prematuramente cada año en Inglaterra y Gales , aunque otros estimaron que la cifra estaba más cerca de 800. [19]
En casos de descarga eléctrica , la reanimación cardiopulmonar (RCP) durante una hora o más puede permitir que los nervios aturdidos se recuperen, permitiendo que una persona aparentemente muerta sobreviva. Las personas que se encuentran inconscientes bajo agua helada pueden sobrevivir si sus rostros se mantienen fríos continuamente hasta que llegan a una sala de emergencias . [20] Esta "respuesta de buceo", en la que la actividad metabólica y los requisitos de oxígeno son mínimos, es algo que los humanos comparten con los cetáceos llamado reflejo de buceo de los mamíferos . [20]
A medida que avanzan las tecnologías médicas, es posible que las ideas sobre cuándo ocurre la muerte deban ser reevaluadas a la luz de la capacidad de restaurar la vitalidad de una persona después de períodos más largos de muerte aparente (como sucedió cuando la RCP y la desfibrilación mostraron que el cese de los latidos del corazón es inadecuado como método). indicador decisivo de muerte). La falta de actividad eléctrica cerebral puede no ser suficiente para considerar a alguien científicamente muerto. Por lo tanto, el concepto de muerte teórica de la información [21] se ha sugerido como un mejor medio para definir cuándo ocurre la muerte verdadera, aunque el concepto tiene pocas aplicaciones prácticas fuera del campo de la criónica .
Ha habido algunos intentos científicos para devolver la vida a los organismos muertos, pero con un éxito limitado. [22] En escenarios de ciencia ficción donde dicha tecnología está fácilmente disponible, la muerte real se distingue de la muerte reversible.
Causas
La principal causa de muerte humana en los países en desarrollo son las enfermedades infecciosas . Las principales causas en los países desarrollados son la aterosclerosis ( enfermedad cardíaca y accidente cerebrovascular ), el cáncer y otras enfermedades relacionadas con la obesidad y el envejecimiento . Por un margen extremadamente amplio, la principal causa unificadora de muerte en el mundo desarrollado es el envejecimiento biológico, [4] que conduce a diversas complicaciones conocidas como enfermedades asociadas al envejecimiento . Estas condiciones provocan la pérdida de la homeostasis , lo que lleva a un paro cardíaco , provocando la pérdida de oxígeno y suministro de nutrientes, provocando un deterioro irreversible del cerebro y otros tejidos . De las aproximadamente 150.000 personas que mueren cada día en todo el mundo, alrededor de dos tercios mueren por causas relacionadas con la edad. [4] En las naciones industrializadas, la proporción es mucho mayor, acercándose al 90%. [4] Con la mejora de la capacidad médica, la muerte se ha convertido en una condición a tratar . Las muertes en el hogar, que alguna vez fueron un lugar común, ahora son raras en el mundo desarrollado.
En los países en desarrollo , las condiciones sanitarias inferiores y la falta de acceso a la tecnología médica moderna hacen que la muerte por enfermedades infecciosas sea más común que en los países desarrollados . Una de esas enfermedades es la tuberculosis , una enfermedad bacteriana que mató a 1,8 millones de personas en 2015. [24] La malaria causa entre 400 y 900 millones de casos de fiebre y entre 1 y 3 millones de muertes al año. [25] El número de muertos por SIDA en África puede llegar a 90-100 millones para 2025. [26] [27]
Según Jean Ziegler ( Reportero especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre el derecho a la alimentación, 2000 - marzo de 2008), la mortalidad por desnutrición representó el 58% de la tasa de mortalidad total en 2006. Ziegler dice que en todo el mundo aproximadamente 62 millones de personas murieron por todas las causas y de esas muertes más de 36 millones murieron de hambre o enfermedades debidas a deficiencias de micronutrientes . [28]
Tobacco smoking killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill 1 billion people around the world in the 21st century, a World Health Organization report warned.[23]
Many leading developed world causes of death can be postponed by diet and physical activity, but the accelerating incidence of disease with age still imposes limits on human longevity. The evolutionary cause of aging is, at best, only just beginning to be understood. It has been suggested that direct intervention in the aging process may now be the most effective intervention against major causes of death.[29]
Selye proposed a unified non-specific approach to many causes of death. He demonstrated that stress decreases adaptability of an organism and proposed to describe the adaptability as a special resource, adaptation energy. The animal dies when this resource is exhausted.[30] Selye assumed that the adaptability is a finite supply, presented at birth. Later on, Goldstone proposed the concept of a production or income of adaptation energy which may be stored (up to a limit), as a capital reserve of adaptation.[31] In recent works, adaptation energy is considered as an internal coordinate on the "dominant path" in the model of adaptation. It is demonstrated that oscillations of well-being appear when the reserve of adaptability is almost exhausted.[32]
In 2012, suicide overtook car crashes for leading causes of human injury deaths in the U.S., followed by poisoning, falls and murder.[33] Causes of death are different in different parts of the world. In high-income and middle income countries nearly half up to more than two thirds of all people live beyond the age of 70 and predominantly die of chronic diseases. In low-income countries, where less than one in five of all people reach the age of 70, and more than a third of all deaths are among children under 15, people predominantly die of infectious diseases.[34]
Autopsy
An autopsy, also known as a postmortem examination or an obduction, is a medical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a human corpse to determine the cause and manner of a person's death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present. It is usually performed by a specialized medical doctor called a pathologist.
Autopsies are either performed for legal or medical purposes. A forensic autopsy is carried out when the cause of death may be a criminal matter, while a clinical or academic autopsy is performed to find the medical cause of death and is used in cases of unknown or uncertain death, or for research purposes. Autopsies can be further classified into cases where external examination suffices, and those where the body is dissected and an internal examination is conducted. Permission from next of kin may be required for internal autopsy in some cases. Once an internal autopsy is complete the body is generally reconstituted by sewing it back together. Autopsy is important in a medical environment and may shed light on mistakes and help improve practices.
A necropsy, which is not always a medical procedure, was a term previously used to describe an unregulated postmortem examination . In modern times, this term is more commonly associated with the corpses of animals.
Senectud
Senescence refers to a scenario when a living being is able to survive all calamities, but eventually dies due to causes relating to old age. Animal and plant cells normally reproduce and function during the whole period of natural existence, but the aging process derives from deterioration of cellular activity and ruination of regular functioning. Aptitude of cells for gradual deterioration and mortality means that cells are naturally sentenced to stable and long-term loss of living capacities, even despite continuing metabolic reactions and viability. In the United Kingdom, for example, nine out of ten of all the deaths that occur on a daily basis relates to senescence, while around the world it accounts for two-thirds of 150,000 deaths that take place daily (Hayflick & Moody, 2003).
Almost all animals who survive external hazards to their biological functioning eventually die from biological aging, known in life sciences as "senescence". Some organisms experience negligible senescence, even exhibiting biological immortality. These include the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii,[35] the hydra, and the planarian. Unnatural causes of death include suicide and predation. From all causes, roughly 150,000 people die around the world each day.[4] Of these, two thirds die directly or indirectly due to senescence, but in industrialized countries – such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany – the rate approaches 90% (i.e., nearly nine out of ten of all deaths are related to senescence).[4]
Physiological death is now seen as a process, more than an event: conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible.[36] 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. As scientific knowledge and medicine advance, formulating a precise medical definition of death becomes more difficult.[37]
Criónica
Cryonics (from Greek κρύος 'kryos-' meaning 'icy cold') is the low-temperature preservation of animals and humans who cannot be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future.[38][39]
Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology. The stated rationale for cryonics is that people who are considered dead by current legal or medical definitions may not necessarily be dead according to the more stringent information-theoretic definition of death.[21][40]
Some scientific literature is claimed to support the feasibility of cryonics.[41] Medical science and cryobiologists generally regards cryonics with skepticism.[42]
Reperfusion
"One of medicine's new frontiers: treating the dead", recognizes that cells that have been without oxygen for more than five minutes die,[43] not from lack of oxygen, but rather when their oxygen supply is resumed. Therefore, practitioners of this approach, e.g., at the Resuscitation Science institute at the University of Pennsylvania, "aim to reduce oxygen uptake, slow metabolism and adjust the blood chemistry for gradual and safe reperfusion."[44]
Extensión de vida
Life extension refers to an increase in maximum or average lifespan, especially in humans, by slowing down or reversing the processes of aging. Average lifespan is determined by vulnerability to accidents and age or lifestyle-related afflictions such as cancer, or cardiovascular disease. Extension of average lifespan can be achieved by good diet, exercise and avoidance of hazards such as smoking. Maximum lifespan is also determined by the rate of aging for a species inherent in its genes. Currently, the only widely recognized method of extending maximum lifespan is calorie restriction. Theoretically, extension of maximum lifespan can be achieved by reducing the rate of aging damage, by periodic replacement of damaged tissues, or by molecular repair or rejuvenation of deteriorated cells and tissues.
A United States poll found that religious people and irreligious people, as well as men and women and people of different economic classes have similar rates of support for life extension, while Africans and Hispanics have higher rates of support than white people.[45] 38 percent of the polled said they would desire to have their aging process cured.
Researchers of life extension are a subclass of biogerontologists known as "biomedical gerontologists". They try to understand the nature of aging and they develop treatments to reverse aging processes or to at least slow them down, for the improvement of health and the maintenance of youthful vigor at every stage of life. Those who take advantage of life extension findings and seek to apply them upon themselves are called "life extensionists" or "longevists". The primary life extension strategy currently is to apply available anti-aging methods in the hope of living long enough to benefit from a complete cure to aging once it is developed.
Localización
Before about 1930, most people in Western countries died in their own homes, surrounded by family, and comforted by clergy, neighbors, and doctors making house calls.[48] By the mid-20th century, half of all Americans died in a hospital.[49] By the start of the 21st century, only about 20–25% of people in developed countries died outside of a medical institution.[49][50][51] The shift away from dying at home towards dying in a professional medical environment has been termed the "Invisible Death".[49] This shift occurred gradually over the years, until most deaths now occur outside the home.[52]
Respuesta emocional
Many people are afraid of dying. Discussing, thinking, or planning their own deaths causes them discomfort. This fear may cause them to put off financial planning, preparing a will and testament, or requesting help from a hospice organization.
Different people have different responses to the idea of their own deaths.
Philosopher Galen Strawson writes that the death that many people wish for is an instant, painless, unexperienced annihilation.[53] In this unlikely scenario, the person dies without realizing it and without being able to fear it. One moment the person is walking, eating, or sleeping, and the next moment, the person is dead. Strawson reasons that this type of death would not take anything away from the person, as he believes that a person cannot have a legitimate claim to ownership in the future.[53][54]
sociedad y Cultura
In society, the nature of death and humanity's awareness of its own mortality has for millennia been a concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical inquiry. This includes belief in resurrection or an afterlife (associated with Abrahamic religions), reincarnation or rebirth (associated with Dharmic religions), or that consciousness permanently ceases to exist, known as eternal oblivion (associated with Secular humanism).[55]
Commemoration ceremonies after death may include various mourning, funeral practices and ceremonies of honouring the deceased. The physical remains of a person, commonly known as a corpse or body, are usually interred whole or cremated, though among the world's cultures there are a variety of other methods of mortuary disposal. In the English language, blessings directed towards a dead person include rest in peace (originally the Latin requiescat in pace), or its initialism RIP.
Death is the center of many traditions and organizations; customs relating to death are a feature of every culture around the world. Much of this revolves around the care of the dead, as well as the afterlife and the disposal of bodies upon the onset of death. The disposal of human corpses does, in general, begin with the last offices before significant time has passed, and ritualistic ceremonies often occur, most commonly interment or cremation. This is not a unified practice; in Tibet, for instance, the body is given a sky burial and left on a mountain top. Proper preparation for death and techniques and ceremonies for producing the ability to transfer one's spiritual attainments into another body (reincarnation) are subjects of detailed study in Tibet.[56] Mummification or embalming is also prevalent in some cultures, to retard the rate of decay.
Legal aspects of death are also part of many cultures, particularly the settlement of the deceased estate and the issues of inheritance and in some countries, inheritance taxation.
Capital punishment is also a culturally divisive aspect of death. In most jurisdictions where capital punishment is carried out today, the death penalty is reserved for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries, sexual crimes, such as adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy, the formal renunciation of one's religion. In many retentionist countries, drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offenses such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.[57]
Death in warfare and in suicide attack also have cultural links, and the ideas of dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, mutiny punishable by death, grieving relatives of dead soldiers and death notification are embedded in many cultures. Recently in the western world, with the increase in terrorism following the September 11 attacks, but also further back in time with suicide bombings, kamikaze missions in World War II and suicide missions in a host of other conflicts in history, death for a cause by way of suicide attack, and martyrdom have had significant cultural impacts.
Suicide in general, and particularly euthanasia, are also points of cultural debate. Both acts are understood very differently in different cultures. In Japan, for example, ending a life with honor by seppuku was considered a desirable death, whereas according to traditional Christian and Islamic cultures, suicide is viewed as a sin. Death is personified in many cultures, with such symbolic representations as the Grim Reaper, Azrael, the Hindu god Yama and Father Time.
In Brazil, a human death is counted officially when it is registered by existing family members at a cartório, a government-authorized registry. Before being able to file for an official death, the deceased must have been registered for an official birth at the cartório. Though a Public Registry Law guarantees all Brazilian citizens the right to register deaths, regardless of their financial means, of their family members (often children), the Brazilian government has not taken away the burden, the hidden costs and fees, of filing for a death. For many impoverished families, the indirect costs and burden of filing for a death lead to a more appealing, unofficial, local, cultural burial, which in turn raises the debate about inaccurate mortality rates.[58]
Talking about death and witnessing it is a difficult issue with most cultures. Western societies may like to treat the dead with the utmost material respect, with an official embalmer and associated rites. Eastern societies (like India) may be more open to accepting it as a fait accompli, with a funeral procession of the dead body ending in an open-air burning-to-ashes of the same.
Conciencia
Much interest and debate surround the question of what happens to one's consciousness as one's body dies. The belief in the permanent loss of consciousness after death is often called eternal oblivion. Belief that the stream of consciousness is preserved after physical death is described by the term afterlife. Neither are likely to ever be confirmed without the ponderer having to actually die.
En biologia
After death, the remains of an organism become part of the biogeochemical cycle, during which animals may be consumed by a predator or a scavenger. Organic material may then be further decomposed by detritivores, organisms which recycle detritus, returning it to the environment for reuse in the food chain, where these chemicals may eventually end up being consumed and assimilated into the cells of a living organism. Examples of detritivores include earthworms, woodlice and dung beetles.
Microorganisms also play a vital role, raising the temperature of the decomposing matter as they break it down into yet simpler molecules. Not all materials need to be fully decomposed. Coal, a fossil fuel formed over vast tracts of time in swamp ecosystems, is one example.
Natural selection
Contemporary evolutionary theory sees death as an important part of the process of natural selection. It is considered that organisms less adapted to their environment are more likely to die having produced fewer offspring, thereby reducing their contribution to the gene pool. Their genes are thus eventually bred out of a population, leading at worst to extinction and, more positively, making the process possible, referred to as speciation. Frequency of reproduction plays an equally important role in determining species survival: an organism that dies young but leaves numerous offspring displays, according to Darwinian criteria, much greater fitness than a long-lived organism leaving only one.
Extinction
Extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point). Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where species presumed extinct abruptly "reappear" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. New species arise through the process of speciation, an aspect of evolution. New varieties of organisms arise and thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological niche – and species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition.
Evolution of aging and mortality
Inquiry into the evolution of aging aims to explain why so many living things and the vast majority of animals weaken and die with age (exceptions include Hydra and the already cited jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii, which research shows to be biologically immortal). The evolutionary origin of senescence remains one of the fundamental puzzles of biology. Gerontology specializes in the science of human aging processes.
Organisms showing only asexual reproduction (e.g. bacteria, some protists, like the euglenoids and many amoebozoans) and unicellular organisms with sexual reproduction (colonial or not, like the volvocine algae Pandorina and Chlamydomonas) are "immortal" at some extent, dying only due to external hazards, like being eaten or meeting with a fatal accident. In multicellular organisms (and also in multinucleate ciliates),[60] with a Weismannist development, that is, with a division of labor between mortal somatic (body) cells and "immortal" germ (reproductive) cells, death becomes an essential part of life, at least for the somatic line.[61]
The Volvox algae are among the simplest organisms to exhibit that division of labor between two completely different cell types, and as a consequence include death of somatic line as a regular, genetically regulated part of its life history.[61][62]
Puntos de vista religiosos
Buddhism
In Buddhist doctrine and practice, death plays an important role. Awareness of death was what motivated Prince Siddhartha to strive to find the "deathless" and finally to attain enlightenment. In Buddhist doctrine, death functions as a reminder of the value of having been born as a human being. Being reborn as a human being is considered the only state in which one can attain enlightenment. Therefore, death helps remind oneself that one should not take life for granted. The belief in rebirth among Buddhists does not necessarily remove death anxiety, since all existence in the cycle of rebirth is considered filled with suffering, and being reborn many times does not necessarily mean that one progresses.[63]
Death is part of several key Buddhist tenets, such as the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination.[63]
Christianity
Hinduism
In Hindu texts, death is described as the individual eternal spiritual jiva-atma (soul or conscious self) exiting the current temporary material body. The soul exits this body when the body can no longer sustain the conscious self (life), which may be due to mental or physical reasons, or more accurately, the inability to act on one's kama (material desires). During conception, the soul enters a compatible new body based on the remaining merits and demerits of one's karma (good/bad material activities based on dharma) and the state of one's mind (impressions or last thoughts) at the time of death.[64][65][66][67]
Usually the process of reincarnation (soul's transmigration) makes one forget all memories of one's previous life.[68] Because nothing really dies and the temporary material body is always changing, both in this life and the next, death simply means forgetfulness of one's previous experiences (previous material identity).[69]
Material existence is described as being full of miseries arising from birth, disease, old age, death, mind, weather, etc.[70][71] To conquer samsara (the cycle of death and rebirth) and become eligible for one of the different types of moksha (liberation), one has to first conquer kama (material desires) and become self-realized.[72][73][74] The human form of life is most suitable for this spiritual journey,[75][76] especially with the help of sadhu (self-realized saintly persons), sastra (revealed spiritual scriptures), and guru (self-realized spiritual masters), given all three are in agreement.[77][78][79][80]
"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."
— Bhagavad-gita 2.13
"For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain."
— Bhagavad-gita 2.20
Islam
Judaism
There are a variety of beliefs about the afterlife within Judaism, but none of them contradict the preference of life over death. This is partially because death puts a cessation to the possibility of fulfilling any commandments.[81]
Lenguaje alrededor de la muerte
The word death comes from Old English dēaþ, which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *dauþuz (reconstructed by etymological analysis). This comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dheu- meaning the "process, act, condition of dying".[82]
The concept and symptoms of death, and varying degrees of delicacy used in discussion in public forums, have generated numerous scientific, legal, and socially acceptable terms or euphemisms for death. When a person has died, it is also said they have passed away, passed on, expired, or are gone, among numerous other socially accepted, religiously specific, slang, and irreverent terms.
As a formal reference to a dead person, it has become common practice to use the participle form of "decease", as in the deceased; another noun form is decedent.
Bereft of life, the dead person is then a corpse, cadaver, a body, a set of remains, and when all flesh has rotted away, a skeleton. The terms carrion and carcass can also be used, though these more often connote the remains of non-human animals. The ashes left after a cremation are sometimes referred to by the neologism cremains.
Ver también
- Casualty (person)
- Day of Judgment
- Day of the Dead
- Deathbed
- Death drive
- Death row
- Death trajectory
- Doomsday
- Dying declaration
- End-of-life care
- Faked death
- Karōshi
- Last rites
- List of deaths by year
- Memento mori
- Near-death experience
- Origin-of-death myth
- Spiritual death
- Survivalism (life after death)
- Taboo on the dead
- Thanatology
- Yama
Referencias
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roughly 150,000 deaths that occur each day across the globe
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Per Day 153,424.70
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- ^ a b Merkle, Ralph. "Information-Theoretic Death". merkle.com.
A person is dead according to the information-theoretic criterion if the structures that encode memory and personality have been so disrupted that it is no longer possible in principle to recover them. If inference of the state of memory and personality are feasible in principle, and therefore restoration to an appropriate functional state is likewise feasible in principle, then the person is not dead.
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- ^ McKie, Robin (13 July 2002). "Cold facts about cryonics". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
Cryonics, which began in the Fifties, is the freezing – usually in liquid nitrogen – of human beings who have been legally declared dead. The aim of this process is to keep such individuals in a state of refrigerated limbo so that it may become possible in the future to resuscitate them, cure them of the condition that killed them, and then restore them to functioning life in an era when medical science has triumphed over the activities of the Banana Reaper
- ^ "What is Cryonics?". Alcor Foundation. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
Cryonics is an effort to save lives by using temperatures so cold that a person beyond help by today's medicine might be preserved for decades or centuries until a future medical technology can restore that person to full health.
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- ^ Lovgren, Stefan (18 March 2005). "Corpses Frozen for Future Rebirth by Arizona Company". National Geographic. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
Many cryobiologists, however, scoff at the idea...
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- ^ "Living to 120 and Beyond: Americans' Views on Aging, Medical Advances and Radical Life Extension". Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 6 August 2013. Archived from the original on 16 August 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ^ Aladár Paasonen (1974). Marsalkan tiedustelupäällikkönä ja hallituksen asiamiehenä (Marshall's chief of intelligence and Government's official. In Finnish). Weilin, Göös, Helsinki
- ^ Kari Hokkanen. "Kallio, Kyösti (1873 - 1940) President of Finland". Biografiakeskus, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
- ^ Ariès, Philippe (1974). Western attitudes toward death: from the Middle Ages to the present. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 87–89. ISBN 978-0-8018-1762-5.
- ^ a b c Nuland, Sherwin B. (1994). How we die: Reflections on life's final chapter. New York: A.A. Knopf. pp. 254–255. ISBN 978-0-679-41461-2.
- ^ Ahmad, S.; O'Mahony, M.S. (December 2005). "Where older people die: a retrospective population-based study". QJM. 98 (12): 865–870. doi:10.1093/qjmed/hci138. PMID 16299059.
- ^ Cassel CK, Demel B (September 2001). "Remembering death: public policy in the USA". J R Soc Med. 94 (9): 433–436. doi:10.1177/014107680109400905. PMC 1282180. PMID 11535743.
- ^ Ariès, P (1981). "Invisible Death". The Wilson Quarterly. 5 (1): 105–115. JSTOR 40256048. PMID 11624731.
- ^ a b Strawson, Galen (2018). Things that Bother Me: Death, Freedom, the Self, Etc. New York Review of Books. pp. 72–73. ISBN 9781681372204.
- ^ Strawson, Galen (2017). The Subject of Experience. Oxford University Press. pp. 108–110. ISBN 9780198777885.
- ^ Heath, Pamela Rae; Klimo, Jon (2010). Handbook to the Afterlife. North Atlantic Books. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-55643-869-1. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
- ^ Mullin 1998[page needed]
- ^ "Shot at Dawn, campaign for pardons for British and Commonwealth soldiers executed in World War I". Shot at Dawn Pardons Campaign. Archived from the original on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2006.
- ^ Nations, Marilyn K.; Amaral, Mara Lucia (September 1999). "Flesh, Blood, Souls, and Households: Cultural Validity in Mortality Inquiry". Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 5 (3): 204–220. doi:10.1525/maq.1991.5.3.02a00020.
- ^ Diamond, Jared M. (1999). "Up to the Starting Line". Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (illustrated, reprint ed.). W.W. Norton. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-0-393-31755-8.
- ^ Beukeboom, L. & Perrin, N. (2014). The Evolution of Sex Determination. Online Chapter 2: The diversity of sexual cycles, p. 12. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b Gilbert, S.F. (2003). Developmental biology (7th ed.). Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer Associates. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-87893-258-0.
- ^ Hallmann, A. (June 2011). "Evolution of reproductive development in the volvocine algae". Sexual Plant Reproduction. 24 (2): 97–112. doi:10.1007/s00497-010-0158-4. PMC 3098969. PMID 21174128.
- ^ a b Blum, Mark L. (2004). "Death" (PDF). In Buswell, Robert E. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference, Thomson Gale. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-02-865720-2.
- ^ "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 2.13". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.
- ^ "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 2.20". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
- ^ "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 8.3". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called adhyātma, the self. Action pertaining to the development of the material bodies of the living entities is called karma, or fruitive activities.
- ^ "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 8.6". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 5.8.27". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
At the time of death, the King saw that the deer was sitting by his side, exactly like his own son, and was lamenting his death. Actually the mind of the King was absorbed in the body of the deer, and consequently — like those bereft of Kṛṣṇa consciousness — he left the world, the deer, and his material body and acquired the body of a deer. However, there was one advantage. Although he lost his human body and received the body of a deer, he did not forget the incidents of his past life.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 11.22.39". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
When the living entity passes from the present body to the next body, which is created by his own karma, he becomes absorbed in the pleasurable and painful sensations of the new body and completely forgets the experience of the previous body. This total forgetfulness of one's previous material identity, which comes about for one reason or another, is called death.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 5.14.25". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
Being unable to protect himself from the threefold miseries of material existence, the conditioned soul becomes very morose and lives a life of lamentation. These threefold miseries are miseries suffered by mental calamity at the hands of the demigods [such as freezing wind and scorching heat], miseries offered by other living entities, and miseries arising from the mind and body themselves.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 5.14.27". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
In this materialistic life, there are many difficulties, as I have just mentioned, and all of these are insurmountable. In addition, there are difficulties arising from so-called happiness, distress, attachment, hate, fear, false prestige, illusion, madness, lamentation, bewilderment, greed, envy, enmity, insult, hunger, thirst, tribulation, disease, birth, old age and death. All these combine together to give the materialistic conditioned soul nothing but misery.
- ^ "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 3.39". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
Thus the wise living entity's pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
- ^ "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 3.41". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bhāratas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 1.2.10". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
Life's desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one's works.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 6.6.42". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
From the womb of Mātṛkā, the wife of Aryamā, were born many learned scholars. Among them Lord Brahmā created the human species, which are endowed with an aptitude for self-examination.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 11.20.12". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
The residents of both heaven and hell desire human birth on the earth planet because human life facilitates the achievement of transcendental knowledge and love of Godhead, whereas neither heavenly nor hellish bodies efficiently provide such opportunities.
- ^ "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 4.35". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
Having obtained real knowledge from a self-realized soul, you will never fall again into such illusion, for by this knowledge you will see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or, in other words, that they are Mine.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 6.5.20". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
[Nārada Muni had asked how one could ignorantly defy one's own father. The Haryaśvas understood the meaning of this question.] One must accept the original instructions of the śāstra. According to Vedic civilization, one is offered a sacred thread as a sign of second birth. One takes his second birth by dint of having received instructions in the śāstra from a bona fide spiritual master. Therefore, śāstra, scripture, is the real father. All the śāstras instruct that one should end his material way of life. If one does not know the purpose of the father's orders, the śāstras, he is ignorant. The words of a material father who endeavors to engage his son in material activities are not the real instructions of the father.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 7.7.30-31". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
One must accept the bona fide spiritual master and render service unto him with great devotion and faith. Whatever one has in one's possession should be offered to the spiritual master, and in the association of saintly persons and devotees one should worship the Lord, hear the glories of the Lord with faith, glorify the transcendental qualities and activities of the Lord, always meditate on the Lord's lotus feet, and worship the Deity of the Lord strictly according to the injunctions of the śāstra and guru.
- ^ "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) 11.20.17". Bhaktivedanta Vedabase. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
The human body, which can award all benefit in life, is automatically obtained by the laws of nature, although it is a very rare achievement. This human body can be compared to a perfectly constructed boat having the spiritual master as the captain and the instructions of the Personality of Godhead as favorable winds impelling it on its course. Considering all these advantages, a human being who does not utilize his human life to cross the ocean of material existence must be considered the killer of his own soul.
- ^ Soloveitchik, Joseph B. Halakhic Man. Qtd. in Israel
- ^ "Death". Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
Bibliography
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- Mullin, Glenn H. (2008) [1998]. Living in the Face of Death: The Tibetan Tradition. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 978-1-55939-310-2.
Otras lecturas
- Best, Ben. "Causes of Death". BenBest.com. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
- Marques, Susana Moreira (13 October 2015). Now and At the Hour of Our Death. Translated by Sanches, Julia. And Other Stories. ISBN 978-1-908276-62-9.
- Rosenberg, David (17 August 2014). "How One Photographer Overcame His Fear of Death by Photographing It (Walter Schels' Life Before Death)". Slate.
- Sachs, Jessica Snyder (2001). Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death (270 pages). Perseus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7382-0336-2.
- Schels, Walter; Lakotta, Beate. "Before and After Death". LensCulture.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2016. Interviews with people dying in hospices, and portraits of them before, and shortly after, death.
- "The Odds of dying from various injuries or accidents". National Safety Council. United States. 2001.
- U.S. Census. "Causes of Death 1916". AntiqueBooks.net (scanns). Archived from the original on 18 September 2004. Retrieved 19 September 2016. How the medical profession categorized causes of death
- Wald, George. "The Origin of Death". ElijahWald.com. A biologist explains life and death in different kinds of organisms, in relation to evolution.
enlaces externos
- Death at Curlie
- Death. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2016.
- . Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 898–900.
Preceded by Old age | Stages of human development Death | Succeeded by Decomposition |