The Term Death

Death

Theoretically, the term ‘death’ means the end of something or someone. It generally defines termination of a life, being or existence. Someone is considered to be dead if he/she cannot perform any task while something is dead it cannot do what it used to do. However, these definitions are understood differently in various disciplines.

In nursing, death occurs when the human body organs cease to function. It occurs when the main organs such as the heart and lungs stop function and paralyzes other organs. A dead body is immobile and unresponsive to any effect (Pollak et al., 1990).

In sociology, the term social death defines a situation of not being viewed as human by the society. Social death is exercised by racial and ethical segregation, persecuting and enslaving. The government may a certain group of people from the society; these may be criminals and prostitutes. In the period of renaissance, an individual be rendered socially dead if he/she changed identity. In slavery, social death occurs from the point the slave becomes powerless. The captured slaves were not killed; the physical death seemed prolonged, but they died psychologically. The slaves would lose their identities by changing their names; they lost freedom and depended completely on their superiors. The psychological death is expressed through segregation from the society and the slaves lost their heritage (Seale 1998). Their social bonds were cut. They were considered not to be completely human as they depended on their masters and did not have power or control over their own lives. The slaves were treated with violence and could be whipped and injured. This physical torture killed the slaves psychologically by creating a feeling of self-blame and acknowledge being powerless.

In economics, death exemplifies the end of a business. Several circumstances may be caused by several factors such as incurring losses, theft of business property and accidents such as fire breakouts. The death of a business signifies non-continuity of the business. When fire burns up a business set-up and everything is damaged, the business cannot continue and is considered to have died. A business can also cease to operate if its mains tools have been stolen or if it’s constantly running losses.

According to philosophy, death is a condition which someone’s body cannot do essential activities. The body is viewed to act effectively when it reveals appropriate feelings and thoughts. Dead bodies cannot reveal an association with mental states. The bodies do not show any sign of being able to make decisions, do not have emotions or the normal senses of a human being. In philosophy, people tend to think of life after the physical death. They question if end of a physical life also means end of mental life. However, no empirical tests have been conducted to affirm whether mental activity continues after physical death. Generally, death is considered to be bodily non-functioning which is permanent and cannot be reversed.

In the field of education, a person is rendered academically dead when he /she show no interest or no potential in learning. This term is often used by teachers to define students who lose class concentration, who show no interest in studying and prefer doing other things instead. Academic dead zones refer to situations brought up in replacement of a learning process. In a classroom, students may decide to watch movies instead of learning, when the teacher is away. Being sick at home, while your fellows are in school learning, that period is an academic dead zone.

Religion gives us a different perspective of the death in nursing. Here, death paves way to an afterlife. This life after death is determined by how we act before our physical death.