Deck 17: Accepting Dying and Death

Question 1

How does the experience of dying today differ from that in the early 1900s?

Answer 1

There has been a significant difference in which the people experience death in the society from the twentieth century. In the previous times, most of the people used to die at their own homes, surrounded by family and friends.
Young children often lived in the same home with their aging grandparents and saw them grow older and ultimately died while being with them. In the older times, death was regarded to be an extension of life.
Nowadays, approximately 80 percent of people died in hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living care facilities. The extended family is often found to sit at the bedside of the dying person. The numbers of efforts are made to keep a dying person from death.

Question 2

Signing a donor card or the organ-donor option on your driver's license ensures that your organs will be donated when you die. True or False?

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Identify and explain the clinical and legal determinants of death and indicate who establishes each of them.

Answer 3

In today's time it has become difficult to define death. The Uniform Determination of Death Act of 1981 is followed by most of the states for defining death. The act gives two criteria for defining death. The first is irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions.
The second is irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain including the brain stem is dead. The measures of bodily functions are referred in clinical determinants of death. These are judged by a physician who can sign a legal document known as medical death certificate.
The clinical criteria include absence of heartbeat and breathing and lack of central nervous system function. The presence of rigor mortis is also included in the criteria which indicate that body tissues and organs are no longer functioning at the cellular level.

Question 4

Death is defined as a state when one's heartbeat can no longer be detected and breathing has ceased. True or False?

Question 5

Explain the difference between direct and indirect euthanasia.

Question 6

There are only two states in the United States where physician-assisted suicide is legal. True or False?

Question 7

How does a living will differ from a durable power of attorney as a health care document? Why are these advance health care directives becoming increasingly popular?

Question 8

It is advisable to bring children to funerals to help them better understand and accept death. True or False?

Question 9

Identify the five psychological stages that dying people tend to experience. Explain each stage.

Question 10

Hospice care is provided primarily in the patient's home. True or False?

Question 11

Identify and explain the four strategies that form the basis of hospice care. What are the advantages of hospice care for the patient and the family?

Question 12

The average cost for a funeral service is around $6,500. True or False?

Question 13

Explain what is meant by the term grief. Identify and explain the sensations and emotions most people have when they experience grief. When does the grieving process end?

Question 14

Only 25 percent of people choose cremation for disposal of their bodies. True or False?

Question 15

What purposes do the rituals of death serve? What are the significant components of the full funeral service?

Question 16

What are the four ways in which bodies are disposed?

Question 17

What activities can we undertake to become better aware of our own mortality?