
When Is Dead Dead? (2019) - Hooke
https://thewalrus.ca/death-when-is-dead-actually-dead/
======
leetrout
I was a volunteer firefighter for a good portion of my youth and saw many
traumatic deaths. It’s easy, as the article states, to realize they are dead.

At 11 years old I stood by my father in a hospital bed and held his hand and
arm as he died. I don’t remember the details but other than the emptiness that
doesn’t have words. But it was slow, similar to the article describes. Not
lingering for weeks, thankfully, but not like the movies where someone says
his final words and sorta gasps his last breath.

Both are sobering experiences and seeing children die is the absolute worst. I
would be having the same debates the author has had.

None of this makes it any easier to face / accept my own mortality either.

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jmnicolas
Imho the problem lies with our constant breaking of natural laws through
technology. Before modern medicine, nobody wondered when dead is dead.

While I don't believe in God, I think we shouldn't fuck with the way nature
works.

~~~
sdenton4
/Before modern medicine, nobody wondered when dead is dead./

Not true! Widespread fear of being buried alive (due to stories of seemingly
dead people waking up from time to time) led to the invention of safety
coffins, for example...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_coffin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_coffin)

~~~
HenryBemis
To those who won't check the Wiki link, that includes the birth of "Saved by
the bell" (mechanism and subsequent expression).

~~~
Ichthypresbyter
Is there actually proof of this? The OED thinks that it comes from boxing
(where the bell signals the end of a round), and the first recorded uses of
the phrase are in a boxing context.

~~~
mikestew
That article could use some light editing, at least for that section. Right
there in the section referenced it says that it comes from boxing:

 _" The "saved by the bell" expression is actually well established to have
come from boxing, where a boxer who is still on their feet but close to being
knocked down can be saved from losing by the bell ringing to indicate the end
of the round."_

