Define Life/Death

[bedub1]

What is the definition of Death?

What is the definition of Life?

[richardgarr]

you are aware and can physically participate in life, you are alive.
You can no longer actively participate in life, and are no longer aware, your dead.

[muy_thaiguy]

you are aware and can physically participate in life, you are alive.
You can no longer actively participate in life, and are no longer aware, your dead.

Second part can easily be disputed, depending on one's personal beliefs.

[jay_a2j]

Life precedes death. And death concludes life.

[Sentinel XIV]

LIFE


DEATH

[bedub1]

so when did terry shabo die? (i know it's spelled wrong.....I'm too lazy to go look her real name up)

[pancakemix]

so when did terry shabo die? (i know it's spelled wrong.....I'm too lazy to go look her real name up)

Because they starved her to death.

[bedub1]

so when did terry shabo die? (i know it's spelled wrong.....I'm too lazy to go look her real name up)

Because they starved her to death.

so she was alive immediately before that?

[muy_thaiguy]

so when did terry shabo die? (i know it's spelled wrong.....I'm too lazy to go look her real name up)

Because they starved her to death.

I wouldn't really say she was alive before they took the feeding tube out, considering she was basically a vegetable.

[bedub1]

so when did terry shabo die? (i know it's spelled wrong.....I'm too lazy to go look her real name up)

Because they starved her to death.

I wouldn't really say she was alive before they took the feeding tube out, considering she was basically a vegetable.

well...i'm not certain a fetus is alive considering it is basically a _________

[Frigidus]

If you can function on your own, in some way, without being hooked up to a machine or some other form of support for an extended period (not sure how long would be enough to be sure) then you are alive.

The key is the "in some way". One example would be someone who requires a machine to breath but also remains lucent.

[hecter]

Life - Your physical body is capable of thought.
Death - Your physical body is no longer capable of thought.

Being in a constant vegetative state and kept alive by machines is not alive.

[Minister Masket]

Death is a natural part of life, rejoice for those who have become one with the Force

Death is just another path, one that we all must take

Listen to your elders.

[jay_a2j]

well...i'm not certain a fetus is alive considering it is basically a _________

A fruit? A grain? What? See, it doesn't matter what individuals "consider" life. It has a start and and end. And it can't vary based on opinion.

[Curmudgeonx]

For Jonesthe Curl

'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e
rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

But one nugget in the above dead parrot sketch: metabolic processes. No metabolic processes = no life.

[demon7896]

there is a biological definition of life...

Conventional definition: Often scientists say that life is a characteristic of organisms that exhibit the following phenomena:

1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, sweating to reduce temperature.
2. Organization: Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
3. Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
4. Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of synthesis than catabolism. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. The particular species begins to multiply and expand as the evolution continues to flourish.
5. Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.
6. Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.
7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from at least two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.

[mandyb]

For Jonesthe Curl

'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e
rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

But one nugget in the above dead parrot sketch: metabolic processes. No metabolic processes = no life.

For Jonesthe Curl

'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e
rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

But one nugget in the above dead parrot sketch: metabolic processes. No metabolic processes = no life.

made me think of this one the meaning of life



Death: the total cessation of brain activity and the end of consciousness (brain dead)

Life: entirely depends how you look at it......a person who is conscious and responsive to his/her surroundings is alive, but there's also a distinction between 'being alive' and 'living'; a person in constant pain/fear/depair may not be seen as actually 'living' or 'having a life', even though they are alive in the physical sense of the word.

[Snorri1234]

Death is getting shot over a trivial argument. Life is completely the opposite.

[Neoteny]

What's all this nonsense about thinking making you alive? Plants are dead? Gregrios is dead?

there is a biological definition of life...

Conventional definition: Often scientists say that life is a characteristic of organisms that exhibit the following phenomena:

1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, sweating to reduce temperature.
2. Organization: Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
3. Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
4. Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of synthesis than catabolism. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. The particular species begins to multiply and expand as the evolution continues to flourish.
5. Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.
6. Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.
7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from at least two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.

Here here. You're hard pressed to get anyone to accept all of those or not add their own (I would take out 6, probably, and maybe 5, but whatever) but they are better than what I've seen so far.

[pimpdave]

Death is when the lights go out. It is painless. And the dying, that part we all do alone, no matter if someone holds your hand or not.

Hell, on the other hand, hath no flame; just a front row seat to watch your true love pack her things and drive away.

[jonesthecurl]

"We came into this life, unsheltered and all alone.
That's how we came in and for sure, that's how we go out."

(anyone know where that's from?)

[Minister Masket]

Very rarely are people born alone. The mother is there to protect them.