What happens in the last minutes of life. Scientists have found out what the dead feel: they are aware of everything and understand that they "are gone." What does a person feel after death?

Dear N.,

Thank you very much for contacting us. Indeed, there are certain actions that a person should try to do before death, so efforts must be made to help him in this. In addition, there are some customs that a person who is next to a dying person before death and immediately after death must observe.

To begin with, it should be said that this is a big mitzvah- to be close to the dying, because it is easier for him when he is surrounded by relatives and friends before leaving this world. However, if it is difficult for someone to restrain emotions and refrain from crying, it is better for him to leave the room, because crying causes suffering to the dying. In any case, it is forbidden to leave him alone, for it hurts his soul.

What should a person say and do before death?

Give money to charity;

Wash your hands;

pronounce Viduy(confessional prayer);

If a person is no longer able to pronounce Viduy in full, then at least say: “May my death atone for all my sins” and think about regretting all your sins;

Immediately before death, one should try to say the first three verses from the prayer Tashlih: Mi Eil Kamoha... - “Who, G-d, is like You, Forgiving iniquity and Not imputing offense to the remnant of His inheritance? He does not hold back His wrath forever, for He desires to do good deeds. He will again show mercy to us, suppress our iniquities. And you will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea. Give faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as you swore to our fathers from of old” (Micah 7:18-20); birkat koanim(Blessing of the Kohanim: “The Lord will bless you and protect you. And the Lord will favor you and have mercy on you. The Lord will favor you and send you peace”; Bemidbar 6, 24-26); Shema Israel(“Listen, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!”) and Baruch Shem Kvod Malchuto le-olam va-ed(“Blessed be the Name of the Glory of His Kingdom forever and ever!”). It is very important to say (or think) at the very end if the person can: “Baruch Shmo Chai ve-Qayyam le-olam va-ed (Blessed be His Name -Living and Eternal forever centuries)". These were the last words of Moshe Rabbeinu before his death.

People who are close to the dying

Those who are close to the dying person should pronounce the words of the Torah and read Teilim (Psalms).

You can stand anywhere near the dying, but not at the foot of the bed, because that is where the Angel of Death itself is located.

It is forbidden to touch a dying person in the last minutes of his life - this can hasten his death. Anyone who shortens a person's life, even for a single moment, is as if committing murder, even if death is inevitable. Therefore, one should not hold the dying man by the hand.

Immediately at the moment of death, you need to say:

- Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad(1 time)

- Baruch Shem Kvod Malchuto Le-olam va-ed(3 times)

- Ha-Shem U ha-Elokim- "The Almighty - Gd" (7 times),

- Hashem Melech, Hashem Malach, Hashem Imloch Le Olam Wa- ed - "The Most High is the King, the Most High reigned, the Most High will reign forever and ever"

Immediately after death

After it is precisely established that death has occurred, the following must be done:

Whoever was present at the time of death must commit kriya(to break clothes); some think what to do today kriya is not accepted;

Open windows in the room;

If the eyes of the deceased are open, close them; preferably his eldest son does it;

If the deceased's mouth is ajar, it must be closed;

Cover his face with a sheet;

Light a candle at the head of the bed;

Hang all mirrors;

You can't kiss the dead

Shomer - h a person who is with the deceased after death

It is forbidden to leave the body of the deceased unattended even for a short time. The person who stays with the dead is called shomer(guard). This is done out of respect for the deceased, and also in order to protect the body from the forces of impurity.

Many have probably heard the stories of people who have experienced clinical death. Some recall in detail the exit of the soul from the body, others describe a flash of light at the end of a dark tunnel, still others see pictures of the earthly path lived before their eyes, and someone even manages to meet God or deceased loved ones. Western researchers consider these memories with scientific point vision.

Memories of death

Sam Parnia, professor of critical care at New York University's Stony Brook Hospital, collaborated with a team of critical care researchers to conduct what is the largest study in its field in the history of medicine. This study was conducted on the basis of the memories of more than 2060 people from Europe and the United States who experienced a heart attack and a state of so-called clinical death. It turned out that 46% of the respondents remembered the process of resuscitation, although most of them lost these memories after they recovered. Two respondents were even able to describe in detail the work of doctors to save them and the announcement of their own death, as if they were watching what was happening from the side.

Almost all patients describe the state of clinical death as a very strong emotional experience, which is accompanied by an aggravation of hearing and vision and a distorted perception of time. Patients who survived at the time of clinical death severe pain, felt the desire to end their earthly existence as soon as possible. The end of all such memories was the return of consciousness to the body. As a result of the analysis of the collected data, the scientist came to the conclusion that the human consciousness continues to record the process of dying for several more minutes after the heart has stopped beating and the brain has stopped functioning.

Cardiac arrest is not over yet

However, Sam Parnia's colleagues were critical of this study. Associate professor of neuroscience at Lund University Henrik Jörntell drew public attention to the fact that Sam Parnia completely ignored the fact that the human brain functions for several minutes even after a cardiac arrest. At the same time, the human brain can be active for another five to ten minutes on average, even after the complete cessation of the heartbeat and the supply of oxygen to the brain. That is why all Western medicine uses such a clinical term as brain death, which is established in the process of two clinical diagnostics carried out at least two hours apart. As the Swedish scientist explains, until brain death is recorded, as a result of its fading activity, a person can be in a state of approximately the same altered consciousness as during sleep. This may explain the visions described by patients who have experienced clinical death.

This point of view is also confirmed by the specialists of the American Heart Association, arguing that the cessation of the heartbeat is only the first phase of the onset of death. Due to oxygen starvation the functioning of that part of the cerebral cortex that is responsible for consciousness slows down, but allows a person to feel and understand that he is gradually dying. According to research by University of Michigan scientist Jimo Borgigina, who conducted experiments on rats in 2013, in the last minutes of life, an extraordinary burst of neurophysiological activity is recorded in the dying brain, which, apparently, gives rise to a very acute experience in the dying person from the awareness of the inevitability of death.

Discoveries continue

The conducted studies confirm that far from all the mysteries of death have been studied, and there is every reason to believe that after a cardiac arrest, a person retains consciousness much longer than previously thought. For example, Sergei Savelyev, head of the laboratory of human morphology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, argues that even after cardiac arrest and the official declaration of death, inhibition of cellular processes in the human brain can last up to several hours.

There is a version that even during decapitation, the brain of the executed man continued to live for several more seconds, fully feeling the pain and realizing the onset of death. However, scientists believe that in cases of sudden and rapid death, for example, as a result of an explosion or a plane crash, a person does not have time to understand that he is dying, but a way to test this hypothesis has not yet been found.

What happens when we die? Every person asks this question from time to time. Everyone is interested in whether there is life after death, whether there is a paradise where a person lives after death and what happens to his body and soul. You will find answers to these questions below.

Of course, no one can resurrect dead people, so they are not able to tell us what is really happening. But science has been able to decipher what happens in the body a few minutes after the heart stops beating. As for the issue of life after death, each religion has its own point of view on this matter.

From a medical point of view, death occurs in two stages. The first stage is clinical death, which lasts from four to six minutes from the moment when a person stops breathing and his heart stops pumping blood. During this stage, the organs remain alive and there may be enough oxygen in the brain to prevent irreversible changes.

The second stage of death is biological death, the process by which the body's organs cease to function and cells begin to become depleted. Physicians can often stop this process by cooling the body below normal temperature, allowing them to revive patients before brain damage occurs.

What happens in the body?

As soon as biological death occurs, the muscles begin to relax, including the sphincter, which can lead to bowel emptying. After 12 hours, the skin loses its color and blood accumulates at the lowest point of the body, contributing to the formation of red and purple bruises (skin lesions).

This is preceded by rigor mortis, which makes the body rigid and hard. This is caused by muscle cells losing calcium. Organic decomposition, namely putrefaction, occurs after bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract begin to eat the organs abdominal cavity, spreading terrible odors that attract insects.

Fly larvae eat decaying tissue and can consume 60% of body tissues within a few weeks. Other parts are then eaten by plants, insects and animals. The entire process takes about a year, depending on how the body was buried.

What happens to a person's soul after death?

After running the program, the researchers found that a person continues to think for up to three minutes after a cardiac arrest. The testimonies of people who have returned to life are very different, but they all say that they felt peace and tranquility. Some of them saw a long tunnel, others a huge wall, and still others saw a glow.

Therefore, believers have found explanations for what happens after death, each according to their own religion. Christians believe that after death, a person's soul goes to heaven or hell, depending on how the person behaved during life.

The Catholic Church believes in the existence of purgatory, a kind of third place between heaven and hell, where sinners first repent of their sins.

Muslims believe that the Lord will raise the dead on the Day of Judgment, the date when he will be the only one left. On that day he will judge all souls and send them to heaven or hell. And until that time, the dead remain in their graves, where they will receive visions of their fate.

Jews believe that there is a mention of life after death in a religion, but not divided between heaven and hell. The Torah speaks of the existence of an afterlife in Hades - a dark place in the center of the Earth, where all souls are without judgment.

Since the appearance of man, he has always been tormented by questions of the mystery of birth and death. It is impossible to live forever, and, probably, scientists will not soon invent the elixir of immortality. Everyone is concerned about the question of what a person feels when he dies. What is happening at this moment? These questions have always worried people, and so far scientists have not found an answer to them.

Interpretation of death

Death is a natural process of ending our existence. Without it, it is impossible to imagine the evolution of life on earth. What happens when a person dies? Such a question has interested and will interest humanity as long as it exists.

Passing away from life proves to some extent that the fittest and the fittest survive. Without it, biological progress would be impossible, and man, perhaps, would never have appeared.

Despite the fact that this natural process has always interested people, it is hard and difficult to talk about death. First of all, because he gets up psychological problem. Talking about it, we seem to be mentally approaching the end of our lives, so we don’t feel like talking about death in any context.

On the other hand, it is difficult to talk about death, because we, the living, did not experience it, therefore we cannot say what a person feels when he dies.

Some compare death to ordinary falling asleep, while others argue that this is a kind of forgetfulness, when a person completely forgets about everything. But neither one nor the other, of course, are right. These analogies cannot be called adequate. It can only be argued that death is the disappearance of our consciousness.

Many continue to believe that after his death, a person simply passes into another world, where he exists not at the level physical body but at the level of the soul.

It's safe to say that research on death will continue forever, but it will never provide a definitive answer about how people feel at this moment. It is simply impossible, no one has yet returned from the other world to tell us how and what is happening there.

What does a person feel when they die?

Physical sensations, probably, at this moment depend on what led to death. Therefore, they may or may not be painful, and some believe that they are quite pleasant.

Everyone has their own inner feelings in the face of death. Most people have some kind of fear sitting inside, they seem to resist and do not want to accept it, clinging to life with all their might.

Scientific data show that after the heart muscle stops, the brain lives for a few more seconds, the person no longer feels anything, but is still conscious. Some believe that it is at this time that the summing up of life results takes place.

Unfortunately, no one can answer the question of how a person dies, what happens when this happens. All these feelings, most likely, are strictly individual.

Biological classification of death

Since the very concept of death is a biological term, the classification must be approached from this point of view. Based on this, the following categories of death can be distinguished:

Natural.
Unnatural.

Physiological death can be attributed to natural, which can occur due to:

Body aging.
Fetal underdevelopment. Therefore, he dies almost immediately after birth or even in the womb.

Unnatural death is divided into the following types:

Death from disease (infections, cardiovascular disease).
Sudden.
Sudden.
Death from external factors (mechanical damage, respiratory failure, exposure to electric current or low temperatures, medical intervention).

This is how you can roughly characterize death with biological point vision.

Socio-legal classification

If we talk about death in this perspective, then it can be:

Violent (murder, suicide).
Non-violent (epidemics, industrial accidents, occupational diseases).

Violent death is always associated with external influences, while non-violent death is due to senile flabbiness, diseases or physical disabilities.

In any type of death, injuries or diseases trigger pathological processes, which are the direct cause of death.

Even if the cause of death is known, it is still impossible to say what a person sees when he dies. This question will remain unanswered.

Signs of death

It is possible to single out the initial and reliable signs that indicate that a person has died. The first group includes:

The body is without movement.
Pale skin.
Consciousness is absent.
Breathing stopped, no pulse.
No response to external stimuli.
The pupils do not react to light.
The body becomes cold.

Signs that speak of 100% death:

The corpse is stiff and cold, cadaveric spots begin to appear.
Late cadaveric manifestations: decomposition, mummification.

The first signs can be confused with a loss of consciousness to an ignorant person, therefore only a doctor should state death.

Stages of death

Departure from life can take different periods of time. This can last minutes, and in some cases hours or days. Dying is a dynamic process, in which death does not occur immediately, but gradually, if you do not mean instant death.

The following stages of death can be distinguished:

preagonal state. The processes of blood circulation and respiration are disturbed, this leads to the fact that the tissues begin to lack oxygen. This state can last for several hours or several days.
Terminal pause. Breathing stops, the work of the heart muscle is disturbed, the activity of the brain stops. This period lasts only a few minutes.
Agony. The body abruptly begins the struggle for survival. At this time, there are short pauses in breathing, a weakening of cardiac activity, as a result, all organ systems cannot carry out their work normally. Changes appearance human: eyes sink, the nose becomes sharp, the lower jaw begins to sag.
clinical death. Stops breathing and blood circulation. During this period, a person can still be revived if no more than 5-6 minutes have passed. It is after coming back to life at this stage that many people talk about what happens when a person dies.
biological death. The body finally ceases to exist.

After death, many organs remain viable for several hours. This is very important, and it is during this period that they can be used for transplantation to another person.

clinical death

It can be called a transitional stage between the final death of the organism and life. The heart stops its work, breathing stops, all signs of vital activity of the body disappear.

Within 5-6 minutes, irreversible processes do not yet have time to start in the brain, so at this time there is every chance to bring a person back to life. Adequate resuscitation actions will force the heart to beat again, the organs to function.

Signs of clinical death

If you carefully observe a person, then it is quite easy to determine the onset of clinical death. She has the following symptoms:

The pulse is absent.
Breathing stops.
The heart stops working.
Strongly dilated pupils.
There are no reflexes.
The person is unconscious.
The skin is pale.
The body is in an unnatural position.

To determine the onset of this moment, it is necessary to feel the pulse and look at the pupils. Clinical death differs from biological death in that the pupils retain the ability to respond to light.

The pulse can be felt on the carotid artery. This is usually done at the same time as the pupils are checked to speed up the diagnosis of clinical death.

If a person is not helped during this period, then biological death will occur, and then it will be impossible to bring him back to life.

How to recognize approaching death

Many philosophers and doctors compare the process of birth and death with each other. They are always individual. It is impossible to predict exactly when a person will leave this world and how this will happen. However, most dying people experience similar symptoms as death approaches. How a person dies may not even be affected by the reasons that provoked the beginning of this process.

Before death, certain psychological and physical changes occur in the body. Among the most striking and frequently encountered are the following:

There is less and less energy left, often drowsiness and weakness throughout the body.
The frequency and depth of breathing changes. Periods of stopping are replaced by frequent and deep breaths.
There are changes in the senses, a person can hear or see something that is not heard by others.
Appetite becomes weak or almost disappears.
Changes in the organ systems lead to dark urine and hard-to-pass stools.
There are temperature fluctuations. High can be abruptly replaced by low.
A person completely loses interest in the outside world.

When a person is seriously ill, there may be other symptoms before death.

Feelings of a person at the time of drowning

If you ask a question about how a person feels when he dies, then the answer may depend on the cause and circumstances of death. Everyone has it in their own way, but in any case, at this moment, there is an acute oxygen deficiency in the brain.

After the movement of blood is stopped, regardless of the method, after about 10 seconds the person loses consciousness, and a little later the death of the body occurs.

If drowning becomes the cause of death, then at the moment when a person is under water, he begins to panic. Since it is impossible to do without breathing, after a while the drowning person has to take a breath, but instead of air, water enters the lungs.

As the lungs fill with water, a burning sensation and fullness appears in the chest. Gradually, after a few minutes, calmness appears, which indicates that the consciousness will soon leave the person, and this will lead to death.

The life expectancy of a person in water will also depend on its temperature. The colder it is, the faster hypothermia sets in. Even if a person is afloat, and not under water, the chances of survival are decreasing by the minute.

An already lifeless body can still be taken out of the water and brought back to life if not much time has passed. The first step is to free the airways from water, and then fully carry out resuscitation measures.

Feelings during a heart attack

In some cases, it happens that a person falls abruptly and dies. Most often, death from a heart attack does not occur suddenly, but the development of the disease occurs gradually. A myocardial infarction does not strike a person immediately, for some time people may feel some discomfort in the chest, but try not to pay attention to it. This is the big mistake that ends in death.

If you are prone to heart attacks, then you should not expect everything to go away on its own. Such hope can cost you your life. After cardiac arrest, only a few seconds will pass before the person loses consciousness. A few more minutes, and death is already taking a loved one from us.

If the patient is in the hospital, then he has a chance to get out if the doctors detect cardiac arrest in time and carry out resuscitation.

body temperature and death

Many are interested in the question of at what temperature a person dies. Most people remember from biology lessons from school that for a person, a body temperature above 42 degrees is considered fatal.

Some scientists attribute death to high temperature with the properties of water, the molecules of which change their structure. But these are only guesses and assumptions that science has yet to deal with.

If we consider the question of at what temperature a person dies, when hypothermia of the body begins, then we can say that even when the body cools down to 30 degrees, a person loses consciousness. If no action is taken at this moment, death will occur.

Many such cases occur with drunk people who fall asleep in winter time right on the street and no longer wake up.

Emotional changes before death

Usually, before death, a person becomes completely indifferent to everything that happens around. He ceases to navigate in time and dates, becomes silent, but some, on the contrary, begin to constantly talk about the upcoming road.

A close dying person may begin to tell you that he spoke or saw dead relatives. Another extreme manifestation at this time is the state of psychosis. It is always difficult for loved ones to endure all this, so you can consult a doctor and consult about taking medicines to alleviate the condition of the dying.

If a person falls into a state of stupor or often sleeps for a long time, do not try to stir him up, wake him up, just be there, hold your hand, talk. Many even in a coma can hear everything perfectly.

Death is always hard, each of us will cross this line between life and non-existence in due time. When this will happen and under what circumstances, what you will feel at the same time, unfortunately, is impossible to predict. Everyone has a purely individual feeling.

In this article we will tell you what processes in the body lead to the end of life and how death occurs. Have you thought about it? After reading, you can leave your opinion on this topic, your comment at the end of the article.

For many of us, death is a process that we can only see on TV and in movies. On the screen, the characters die, and then we see the actors who played their roles in full health.

Death always accompanies miscellaneous news. Celebrities die from overdoses, traffic accidents, ordinary people from accidents and terrorist attacks.

What is death?

Death has been defined in different ways at different times. Most often, they said that this is separation and bodies. However, almost everyone is talking about it. But from a purely biological point of view, death is still difficult to define. Only recently created medical equipment can help to understand whether a person is alive or dead.

This was not the case before. If a person was sick, a doctor or a priest was called to him, who ascertained death. Approximately. That is, if a person does not move and does not seem to be breathing, he is dead. How was it determined that a person was not breathing? A mirror or pen was brought to his mouth. If the mirror fogged up, and the feather moved from breathing, the person is alive, if not, he is dead. In the 18th century, they began to check the pulse on the arm, but the invention of the stethoscope was still far away.

Over time, people realized that, despite the lack of breathing and heartbeat, a person can be alive. Edgar Allan Poe alone wrote several stories about those who were buried alive. In general, it turned out that it can be reversible.

Today we know that there is an apparatus capable of bringing a person back to life. If a person stops breathing, but his heart is still beating, you can stimulate his activity with the help of a defibrillator.

True, the presence of a pulse does not mean that a person is alive. Both doctors and relatives of the dying understood this. If the brain is dead, and cardiac activity is supported by machines in intensive care, then the person is more likely dead than alive. In medical language, this is called an irreversible coma.

It is, of course, difficult for the relatives of a dying person to recognize such a death. They are told that the person has died while he is breathing and his body is radiating heat. At the same time, machines record minimal brain activity, and this gives relatives a false hope that the patient will recover. But one brain activity not enough for life.

Despite the fact that death is considered brain death, rarely do you see this conclusion in the form of an official cause of death. More often you can see such as "myocardial infarction", "cancer" and "stroke". In general, death is caused in three different ways:

as a result of severe bodily injuries received in automobile and other man-made accidents, during falls and drownings;
as a result of murder and suicide;
as a result of disease and wear and tear of the body with the onset of old age.

In the old days, people rarely lived to old age, dying prematurely from diseases. Today, many deadly diseases have been eliminated. Of course, there are still areas on Earth with undeveloped medicine, where people die, mainly from AIDS.

In high-income countries, death is more likely to occur from coronary disease heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, lower respiratory infections and lung failure. At the same time, life expectancy is longer in high-income countries. True, people are more likely to suffer from degenerative diseases.

How Death Comes - The Process

If the brain dies first in the body, the person stops breathing. Cells that do not receive oxygen begin to die.

Different cells die at different rates. It depends on how long they don't get oxygen. The brain requires a lot of oxygen, so when the air flow stops, brain cells die within 3-7 minutes. That's why stroke kills patients so quickly.

During a myocardial infarction, blood flow is disrupted. The brain also stops receiving oxygen, and death can occur.

If a person does not get sick with anything, but lives for a very long time, his body simply wears out from old age. His functions gradually fade away, and he dies.

There are some external manifestations of decrepitude of the body. A person begins to sleep more so as not to waste energy. After a person loses the desire to move, he loses the desire to eat and drink. He has a dry throat, it becomes difficult for him to swallow something, and drinking liquids can cause choking.

Shortly before death, a person loses the ability to control discharge from Bladder and intestines. However, he almost does not urinate anymore and does not walk in a big way, because he practically does not eat, and his gastrointestinal tract stops functioning.

If a person is in pain before death, doctors can relieve his condition.

Shortly before death, a person begins to go into agony. The dying person is disoriented and finds it difficult to breathe. He breathes loudly and heavily. If there is an accumulation of fluid in the lungs, the patient may experience a death rattle. Due to a violation of the connection between the cells of the body, the dying person begins to have convulsions and muscle spasms.

We cannot know exactly what a person experiences on the eve of death. But those who died, but were saved in time, argued that death does not come painfully. At the same time, all the dying experienced a sense of detachment and peace, they felt that their soul was separated from the physical body, they had the feeling that they were moving out of the darkness towards the light. In general, hundreds of books and works have already been written about this.

Some doctors argue that near-death experiences are related to the fact that endorphins, pleasure hormones, are released in the human body before death.

When the heartbeat and breathing stop, clinical death occurs. Oxygen does not enter the cells, there is no blood circulation. However, clinical death is a reversible state. With the help of modern means of resuscitation, such as blood transfusion or mechanical ventilation, a person can still be brought back to life.

The point of no return is biological death. It starts 4-6 minutes after the clinical one. After the pulse stops, brain cells begin to die from lack of oxygen. Now resuscitation no longer makes sense.

What happens to the body after death?

After the heart stops beating, the body cools down and rigor mortis begins. Every hour, body temperature drops by almost a degree. This continues until the body temperature reaches room temperature. In the absence of movement, the blood begins to stagnate, and cadaveric spots appear. This happens in the next 2-6 hours after death.

Despite the fact that the organism has died, some processes are still going on in the body. Skin cells, for example, function for up to 24 hours after death occurs.

A few days after death, the bacteria and enzymes contained in it are taken for the destruction of the body. The pancreas has so many bacteria that it begins to digest itself. As the microorganisms work on the body, it becomes discolored, becoming first greenish, then purple, and finally black.

If you visually do not notice changes in the body, then you cannot help but notice the smell. Bacteria that destroy the body emit a fetid gas. Gas is not only present in the room in the form of an unpleasant odor. It inflates the body, making the eyes bulge and protrude from the sockets, and the tongue so thick that it begins to protrude from the mouth.

A week after death, the skin becomes covered with blisters, and the slightest touch to it can lead to their spontaneous opening. Within a month after the onset of death, nails and hair continue to grow.

But this is not because they are actually growing. It's just that the skin dries out, and they become more noticeable. Internal organs and tissues fill with fluid and swell. This will continue until the body bursts. After that, the insides dry up, and one skeleton remains.

Most of us cannot see the whole process described above, because the laws of different countries force citizens to do something with the body. The body can be put in a coffin and buried in the ground. It can be frozen, embalmed, or cremated. And for the same reason, we did not place images in this part of the text. Even if they exist, you should not look at them - the picture is not for the faint of heart.

Funerals in different countries and among different peoples

In ancient times, people were buried so that they would awaken in the afterlife. For this, their favorite things were placed in their tombs, and sometimes their favorite animals and even people. Warriors were sometimes buried in vertical position so that they would be ready for battle in the afterlife.

Orthodox Jews wrapped the dead in shrouds and buried them on the day of death. But Buddhists believe that consciousness remains in the body for three days, so they bury the body no earlier than this period.

Hindus cremated the body, freeing the soul from the body, and Catholics treat cremation extremely negatively, believing that it offends the body as a symbol of human life.

Death and medical ethics

We have already written about the difficulties in determining the onset of death. Thanks to modern medical technology, it has become possible to keep the body alive even after brain death. When the brain dies, it is documented and communicated to the relatives of the deceased.

Then there are two possible scenarios. Some relatives agree with the opinion of doctors and give permission to disconnect the deceased from life support devices. Others do not recognize death, and the deceased continues to lie further under the apparatus.

People would like to always control their lives, but death deprives them of this. Now their fate will be determined by the doctor, whose decision will depend on whether to disconnect the deceased from the apparatus or not.

In general, a person whose brain does not work can no longer live fully. He cannot make decisions and benefit both his relatives and society. Relatives of the deceased must understand this and come to terms with the loss of a family member.

Appreciate loved ones while they are with you, and let go if they have already left.