death

• Brain Death


  Neurological condition which states the person is brain dead when all electrical activity of the brain has ceased for a specific period of time
• Brain Death


  • Higher portions of the brains dies sooner than lower parts which facilitates breathing and heartbeat
  • Brain could be dead but you still have heartbeat for the mean time
• Euthanasia


  Good death, intended to end suffering or to allow terminally ill person to die with dignity
• Types of Euthanasia


  • Passive: Withholding or discontinuing treatment that might extend the life of a terminally ill patient such as life support
  • Active: "Mercy killing" involves action taken directly or deliberate to shorten life
• Advance Directive


  Contains instructions for when and how to discontinue futile medical care
• Forms of Advance Directive

  • Living will
  • Durable power of attorney
• Durable Power of Attorney


  Appoints another person if the maker of the document becomes incompetent to do so
• Assisted Suicide


  Physician or someone else helps a person bring about a self-inflicted death
• Suicide


  Self-inflicted death in which the person acts intentionally, directly, and consciously
• Types of Suicide Attempters

  • Death Seekers: Clearly intend to end their lives at the time they attempt suicide
  • Death Initiators: Clearly intent to end their lives, but they act out of a belief that the process is already under the way and that they are simply hastening the process
  • Death Ignorers: Do not believe that their self-inflicted death will mean the end of their existence
  • Death Darers: Experience mixed feelings, or ambivalence, about their intent to die, even at the moment of their attempt, and they show this ambivalence in the act itself
• Suicide is officially the 11th cause of death in US
• Suicidal Ideation


  Thinking seriously about suicide
• Suicidal Plans


  Formulation of a specific method for killing oneself
• Suicidal Attempts


  The person survives from attempts
• Emile Durkheim's Suicide Types

  • Altruistic: Formalized suicides; dishonor to self, family, or society
  • Egoistic: Loss of social supports as an important provocation for suicide
  • Anomic: Result of marked disruptions, such as sudden loss of job
  • Fatalistic: Loss of control over one's own destiny
• Freud believed that suicide indicated unconscious hostility directed inward to the self rather than outward to the person or situation causing the anger
• If a family member committed a suicide, there is an increased risk that someone else will also
• Low levels of serotonin is associated with suicide and with violent suicide attempts (low levels of serotonin is linked with impulsivity, instability, and the tendency to overreact to situation)
• The stress of a friend's suicide or some other major stress may affect several individuals who are vulnerable because of existing psychological disorders
• Hopelessness


  Pessimistic belief that one's present circumstances, problems, or mood will not change
• Dichotomous Thinking


  Viewing problems and solutions in rigid either/or terms
• Common triggering factors for suicide

  • Stressful events
  • Mood and thought changes
  • Alcohol and other drug use
  • Mental disorders
  • Modeling