Human Persons are Oriented

Toward their Impending Death

 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
• Legal-Medical Definition
– Traditional definition of death; simply equated to the
stopping of heartbeat and breathing.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– The Journal of the American Medical

Association on August 1968
• Death as no longer just the absence of
heartbeat and breathing.
• A patient who is breathing and whose heart
is functioning through medical machines,
may no longer have any brain activity—is
already DEAD!
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– Irreversible coma as a new criterion for

death;
• 1. Improvements in resuscitative and
supportive measures have led to increase
efforts to save those who desperately injured
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– Republic Act 7170 or Organ Donation Act of

1991 of Section 2 paragraph (j):
• DEATH – the irreversible cessation of circulatory
and respiratory functions or the irreversible
cessation of all functions of the entire brain,
including the brain stem. A person shall be
medically and legally dead if;
– In the opinion of attending physician, based on the
acceptable standard of medical practice.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– Two important points;

• 1. Only physicians can declare if someone is already dead
• 2. The physician must have done everything to preserve
the life of the patient—consistent to the physicians’
professional oath.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

• Religious Definition
–Some groups objected and criticized
the very rational-based foundation
of human life.
–Some recognized the authority and
independence of medical
authorities.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
– The differences of perspectives, beliefs, and
practices among religions are extensive that
prevents us from establishing single definition
of death.
– For most, DEATH is based on the concept of
an afterlife—from earthly life to the life after
death.
• What happen to the soul after life will vary from
religion to religion.
– That the soul will be directed to a place that is
proportionate to its moral status during earthly life.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
• Christianity believes in the
existence of heaven, hell, and
purgatory
• Protestant Christianity and
Judaism do not subscribe to the
idea of purgatory
• Indian religions; Buddhism,
Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism soul
undergoes rebirth—
reincarnation.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– The afterlife is ultimately based on rewards

and punishments—good life = HEAVEN or
reincarnate to a higher status while bad life
= hell or lower status
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

• Existential Definition
– Existentialism criticized the definition of
death that focused on the afterlife.
• For them, it takes away the focus of the person
to what is actual and concrete—to human
existence.
– People tend to ignore the present and always do
the things in reference to the future—the afterlife.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– DEATH – is the transition from being to non-being,

meaning this is the termination of all the
possibilities that we have as temporal beings.
• “to be—to exist” – to have possibilities
• “not to be—not to exist” – to lose all the possibilities
– Afterlife?
• Not a concern for them, because its existence is not
concrete!
– Cannot empirically validate the existence of heaven, hell or
even the reincarnation of the soul—will leads us only to
anxiety!
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– For existentialist, face the real possibility of non-

being—the possibility that when we die,
everything is over, that is, that we simply cease to
be; that we are no longer—this is the real source
of death’s anxiety not anything else!
– Thus, knowing and facing the possibility of non-
being redirects us to being—to what is actual,
concrete, and present—the HERE and NOW!
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• Why is killing is wrong?
• What makes killing wrong?
• Are all killings wrong?

– When death is induced, we call it KILLING!

• There is an undeniable value in human life that makes
its negation a central issue in the realm of ethics.
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• SUICIDE – is generally considered a morally
impermissible act.
– Three Arguments;
• 1. Thou shalt not kill – God gave us life and He intends it
to be preserved.
• 2. Arguments from natural law – our natural disposition
is self-preservation.
• 3. Socio-political Arguments – we have obligations to
other persons.
 Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• EUTHANASIA OR “EASY DEATH” – practice of killing
someone who is very sick or very badly injured to
badly injured to prevent further suffering.
– Three arguments why it is wrong:
• 1. Medical legal argument – contradicts the role of the
physicians
• 2. Theological argument – it is God who gave us life, and it is
only God who can take it away.
• 3. Psychological argument – patient may feel guilty in
considering himself a burden to his family and others taking
care of him/her.
 Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• ABORTION – act intends to bring about the
death of a fetus for the sake of the woman who
caries it.
– Pro-abortion argument – they do not recognize the
fetus, or the embryo, as constituting a human
person who deserves the right to life.
– Vatican – it is termination of life, “The right to life is
no less to be respected in the small infant just born
than in the mature person.”
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
WHY KILLING IS CONSIDERED WRONG?
-- it is the imposition of a premature death;
deprivation of a future life: that is living a qualitative
life
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
JUSTIFICATION WHY KILLING BECOMES MORALLY
JUSTIFIABLE
1. ABORTION: is morally justifiable if the fetus has
physical and/or mental disabilities upon birth
2. EUTHANASIA: a person who is terminally ill
and suffering from intractable pain/ physical
and psychological suffering
3. SUICIDE: if the person no longer sees any
valued future ahead of him