Question

What is death? Write the main reason for death.

Answer 1

Hint: All living beings go through this process. Shortly after death, the remains of the organism begin to decompose.

Complete Answer:
- Death is the permanent cessation of all biological function in a living being.
- Determining when death happened is difficult as cessation of life functions of the organ system are different. We can observe a slight cardiac activity in the ECG even after several minutes after the heart has stopped beating. Three hours after the death, the muscles may still shorten mechanically when repeatedly tapped and the pupils still respond to pilocarpine drops by contacting.
- A skin graft, which can still be used, can also be obtained 24 hours after the heart stopped beating, a bone graft 48 hours later and a viable arterial graft 72 hours late after the cardiac stoppage. Every cell differs in their ability to bear with the deprivation of the oxygen supply that follows arrest of the circulation. At some points, the heart is kept alive artificially while the brain is dead. Even though most of the cells will be alive in this case, the organism is said to be dead.
- Due to such reasons, a living organism was said to be dead when consciousness stopped but the flaw was that some organisms like the ‘single-celled organisms’ are alive but not necessarily conscious. Consciousness also has different definitions by modern scientists, psychologists and philosophers. Hence, this definition could not be used.
- The reason for death can be old age, disease, an accident, or a cardiac arrest due to an emotional or fearful experience. It can be concluded that the main reason of death is the reduction of physiological processes in the body of the organism, and eventually stoppage of all the processes.

Note: Death is mostly a process than an event. It is a key phenomenon in understanding the various mechanisms of an organism’s body and life.