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Concept
Stages of death
Summary
The stages of death of a human being have medical, biochemical and legal aspects. The term taphonomy from palaeontology applies to the fate of all kinds of remains of organisms. Forensic taphonomy is concerned with remains of the human body.
The academic study of death is called thanatology, a field pioneered by Élie Metchnikoff in the early 20th century. Thanatology focuses on describing postmortem bodily modifications, as well as perspectives concerning psychosocial, medical, ethical, and spiritual aspects of death.
Prior to the 1980s, the legal standard defined death as the absence of cardiopulmonary function including the loss of all vital signs. However, as medical technology advanced, there were situations where one might lose brain function and maintain cardiopulmonary function. This led the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association in collaboration with the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws to come together in the 1980s to expand the definition of death through the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA). Under this law, death can be defined as the loss of cardiopulmonary function or the loss of brain function including the brainstem and cortex.
Signs of death or strong indications that a warm-blooded animal is no longer alive are:
Respiratory arrest (no breathing)
Cardiac arrest (no pulse)
Brain death (no neuronal activity)
The heart and lungs are vital organs for human life due to their ability to properly oxygenate human blood (lungs) and distribute this blood to all vital organs (heart). Hence failure of the heart to pump blood or the lungs to obtain oxygen can lead to a cardiopulmonary death where the heart stops pumping and there is no pulse. In the brain, this can be manifested by a hypoxic state which leads to cerebral edema and thus an increase in intracranial pressure. The rise in intracranial pressure can lead to further disruption in cerebral blood flow, leading to necrosis or tissue death.
Official source
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