What is death?

I was watching a documentary on death, (off topic if you want to watch it, it's called National Geographic's Moment of Death) and there is a very open debate in the medical field for ages, about death. When is it safe to say someone is dead? And what are the requirements for someone to be dead?

I personally believe someone is dead when nothing inside their body is functioning. As far as organs are concerned, they are destroyed, and decomposition starts to occur. We control the possibility now, for someone to be 'dead' for hours, and then revive them. So would that be considered rebirth?

It's really something just to think about. And I'd love to see everyone's thoughts.

 

First an answer to your question:
-What is death? The meaning to life.
My reasoning for this is because if you think about it, death is the only normality we all truly share. You can't say the all purpose meaning of life (not to be confused with the personal meaning of life) is to be good to your fellow man while others out there blatantly disregard this and i could give many other examples but I'm sure you get my idea.
While death, is inevitable and is eternal and is inescapable.

Now to continue, the whole idea of rebirth. Eh...it's a possibility of an idea but my definition of death would have to be the complete end, I doubt it can be called "death" when there's not a complete and definite end.

 

I would say, if a person can be revived then there still but be some part of their body that is healthy enough to accept aid from the doctors assistance.
So I would say death is when your body organs have totally stopped working and can no longer accept aid.

 

I don't think there is a way to medically determine death. Being "revived" doesn't mean you were dead, it means they basically caught you by the last thread of your life and your body started to function again. You would basically need to be the person dying to know if you are dead or not.

 

Well every part of their body has stopped working, and the cells are beginning to kill each other off, so wouldn't that mean there is no thread of life?

 

But then it's not death if you can be revived, Medically declared death? maybe. but not actual death.

 

my opinion of death, is directly taken from "The Egg" by Andy Weir. A simple google search takes you to the short story for anyone interested.

 

My original post says there is a lot of debate about what death is currently in the medical world. No one can come up with a correct definition, so how would medically declared death work?

 

By medical death i mean like a common medically accepted determination of death or when someone is dead.

 

Well what would you consider death?

 

Well personally i would define death as the complete end or the death of the conscious mind (thus for brain dead patients)

 

When someone's heart stops beating for certain period of time, he's a goner.

 

So would someone in a coma be considered dead to you?

Well, in open heart surgery they stop the heart. So would they be considered dead?

 

Rebirth after someone's been dead for hours is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. You cannot revive someone, because they CAN'T breathe, and their cells die of oxygen-deprivation and nerves die too. It is impossible, don't post un-educated bullshit.

 

Death is absence of life. The hard part is defining life.

 

Death is hard to define:

# S: (n) death, decease, expiry (the event of dying or departure from life) "her death came as a terrible shock"; "upon your decease the capital will pass to your grandchildren"
# S: (n) death (the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism) "the animal died a painful death"
# S: (n) death (the absence of life or state of being dead) "he seemed more content in death than he had ever been in life"
# S: (n) death, dying, demise (the time when something ends) "it was the death of all his plans"; "a dying of old hopes"
# S: (n) death, last (the time at which life ends; continuing until dead) "she stayed until his death"; "a struggle to the last"
# S: (n) Death (the personification of death) "Death walked the streets of the plague-bound city"
# S: (n) end, destruction, death (a final state) "he came to a bad end"; "the so-called glorious experiment came to an inglorious end"
# S: (n) death (the act of killing) "he had two deaths on his conscience"

 

Death is considered an unfair ending by some, although what awaits us is quite possibly the very beginning.

 

bullshit a kid died here in a lake.. been dead for like a day and they revived him. It was posted all over CNN.

 

Link please?

 

Provide a video,link or article to support your claim or it didn't happen.