DEATH

SS03-1 INTRODUCTION TO THE

PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPQRHemfk9E
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOO8TwyVFYI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2bk_9T482g&start_r
adio=1&list=RDQMKIYTqGgVCvs

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DEFINITIONS OF
DEATH
 Why do we need to study the
Definitions of Death??

Analyzing moral problems

regarding death require a
clear grasp of its
definition, or at least a
common agreement about it.

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 Definitions of Death

Legal-Medical Definition
Religious Definition
Existential Definition

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 Legal-Medical Definition

Cardio-Pulmonary-
Based

Neurological
Definition
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 Why is there no single legal-
medical definition of death?
Scientific and technological
advancement

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 Cardio-Pulmonary-Based Definition

The irreversible loss of function

in the heart and lungs.

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 Counterarguments

• False-Appearance of Life

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 Neurological Definition

• Brain-based Definition
• Retaining intact neurological hardware needed for
consciousness
“A Definition of
Irreversible Coma”
The Journal of
American Medical
Association
(August 1968)
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 Justification for the
Redefinition

(1)Those in greater need of

hospital facilities
(2)Organ transplantation

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 Counterarguments

• ‘Consciousness’ is hard to define

• Do fetuses really die if we use the
Neurological Approach?

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 Which is which?

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 Responsibility
and

In the Philippines accountability

• Section 2, paragraph (j) Organ Donation Act of 1991, or

Republic Act 7170
• Death: the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory
functions or the irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire
brain stem. A person shall be medically and legally dead if either:
• The physician declared the person is dead (according to acceptable
medical standards)
• All means were exhausted to preserve the life of the patient

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 Religious
TRANSITORY
Definition

PROPOR-
TIONATE TO
MORAL
STATUS
DEATH CYCLICAL

PERSONAL

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 Eternal Life

Bhagavad gita:
“Just as a man discards worn out clothes and
puts on new clothes, the soul discards worn
out bodies and ears new ones.” (2.22)

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 DEATH AS AN
ETHICAL ISSUE
 Why is death an ethical issue?

When you bury a person who

is not dead, you are killing a
person.
When you remarry while your wife is still alive, you
are being immoral.
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 Some common ethical dilemmas

• Suicide
• Euthanasia
• Abortion

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 Suicide
• The controversial ‘suicide pod’
that lets users kill themselves
with the press of a button

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• A controversial suicide pod that enables its occupant to kill
themselves at a press of a button went on display at
Amsterdam funeral show.
• Called the “Sarco”, short for sarcophagus, the 3D-printed
machine invented by Australian euthanasia activist Philip
Nitschke and Dutch designer Alexander Bannink comes with a
detachable coffin, mounted on a stand that contains a
nitrogen canister.
• “The person who wants to die presses the button and the
capsule is filled with nitrogen. He or she will feel a bit dizzy but
will then rapidly lose consciousness and die,” said Nitschke, who
has been dubbed “Dr Death” for his work to legalise euthanasia.
• The “Sarco” is a device “to provide people with a death when
they wish to die,” Nitschke said.
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• The inventors put a model of the
device on display, together with a
set of virtual reality glasses to give
visitors a true-to-life experience of
what it would be like to sit in the
pod, before ultimately pressing the
button.

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 Euthanasia
• Euthanasia is used in 4.5 per
cent of all deaths in the
Netherlands, 15 years after
legalisation
• Some 92 per cent of euthanasia
cases involved seriously ill patients -
but the number who were not
terminally ill has been growing

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HUMAN PERSON

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 Abortion
• The abortion debate asks whether it can be morally right
to terminate a pregnancy before normal childbirth.
• Some people think that abortion is always wrong. Some
think that abortion is right when the mother's life is at
risk. Others think that there is a range of circumstances in
which abortion is morally acceptable.

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 Existential Definition

• Goes away from the idea of the afterlife as

the central aspect of death because it takes
away the focus of the person to what is
actual and concrete.

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 To be or not to be
• Endless possibilities

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 Existentialism and Anxiety

• “Death is not an experience, it is the end of it”

• Religious definition of death comfort us that non-
being is impossible.
• But knowing reality, gives us anxiety
• It brings us to the essence of the here and now.

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