Death and Dying PDF

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Developmental Psychology...

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12/2/19 ➢ The final challenge: death and dying ○ Definitions ■ Functional death - absence of heartbeat and breath ○ What is death? ■ Biological death-complex process ■ Harvard Medical School (1968) ● Defined biological death as total brain death ● Irreversible loss of functioning in entire brain ○ Higher centers involved in conscious awareness ○ Lower centers that control life processes ■ To be judged dead ● Be totally unresponsive to stimuli, including painful ones ● Fail to move for one hour and fail to breath for three minutes after being removed from a ventilator ● No reflexes ● No electrical activity in brain ■ Debate about people in comas and vegatative states ● Terri schiavo case ● Total brain death vs cerebral cortex irreversibly dead ■ Euthanasia ● Active euthanasia ○ Mercy killing ○ Administering a lethal dose of drugs to end suffering ○ Completely illegal in the us ● Passive euthanasia ○ Withholding extraordinary life-saving treatments ■ Aka removing tubes ● Assisted suicide ○ Making available to a person who wishes to die the means by which they may do so ○ Death is also a psychological and social process ■ Aries argues that Western Societies:

● Are engaged in denial of death ● Have taken it out of homes and into hospitals/funeral homes ■ Cultural variations in grieving ● No one right way to grieve ○ What kills us and when? ■ Average life expectancy US ● Males: 76 ● Females: 81 ● Highest for Hispanics ● Lowest for African Americans ■ Leading cause of death? ● Preschool and school children: unintentional injuries (car accidents) ● Adolescence and early adulthood: accidents (car), homicides, and suicides ● 45-64: cancers ○ Perspectives on dying ■ Kubler-Ross’s five stages of dying ● Denial ● Anger ● Bargaining ● Depression ● Acceptance...