Death

This article needs more sources for reliability. Please help improve this article by adding reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged or removed. Find sources: "Death" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Death is the end of a life in an organism. All biological and living activity of the living thing stops, including the mind and the senses. The usual signal for death in humans and many other animals is that the heart stops beating and cannot be restarted. This can be caused by many things. All living things have a limited lifespan, and all living things eventually die.

Living things that have died are normally described as being dead. Death of humans is often investigated for the cause, in case of crime (such as murder), accident or disease that may continue to kill other humans. About 150,000 people die every day around the world.^[1] About two thirds of these people die because of age.^[1] In addition to the physical body, some believe humans also have a soul and believe that the soul can continue without a body (afterlife), move into another body (reincarnation), or cease to exist (annihilationism). Religions have different beliefs about this issue. Many cultures have their own customs and rituals to respect the dead.

When people talk about things or events that lead to the death of a plant or animal, those things or events are usually described as being deadly, or fatal. In the case of diseases, they are described as terminal. Humans are no different from any other lifeform. Our bodies have an ability for self-repair, but that ability is limited. Finding the cause of death is a medical speciality called pathology. In medicine, death is when the heart stops beating for more than several minutes. There are special times in which people recover even though the heart has stopped for 30 minutes, such as near-drowning in very cold water. If machines are used to help the heart and lungs work, then the moment of death is more difficult to know.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Aubrey D.N.J, de Grey (2007). "Life span extension research and public debate: societal considerations" (PDF). Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology. 1 (1, Article 5). doi:10.2202/1941-6008.1011. ISSN 1941-6008. S2CID 201101995. Retrieved March 20, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]}