Person Dead Death
Discuss the Issues that Determine Whether and When a Person is Dead
Death is a certain factor for every being on the planet; animal and plant life all die eventually. In discussing human death, there is no definitive point at which a person might be said to be dead; cessation of life is judged through a series of medical and physical events which are generally agreed to indicate death.
The term death used here indicates simply the body cessing to live. Religious and social desires may also influence when death is considered to be dead, and proper acknowledgement must be paid to these sentiments, but for the purposes of this discussion, death will be described as a physical change only.
Originally, “As recently as a century ago, it was priests not doctors who declared a person dead. When in doubt, they looked for signs of putrefaction” (Marchant and Middleton, 2007), and fears about being buried alive were common. Developments in the 20th Century meant that many countries decided to define death as ‘Whole Brain Death'. The American Act known as the “Uniform Determination of Death Act” (1981) said that death was formed of two occurrences: “Total failure of the cardiorespiratory system” and “The entire brain must cease to function irreversibly. The “Entire brain” includes the brain stem, as well as the neocortex” (both quotes from the Uniform Determination of Death Act 1981). In the cases of expected death, the lack of breathing and heart-beat is usually enough. In certain circumstances, the doctor might also refer to the lack of brain-function. While these two indicators of death have been described as not precise enough, considering the factors such as life-support and “Heroic measures”, and it has been suggested that the lack of a clear definition “Gives rise to the suspicion that death is a malleable concept that can be adjusted for utilitarian purposes” (Capron, 2001), death is still considered to have occurred when these vital signs (breath, heart rate and brain function) are not present.
At a more biological level, the first state of death could be considered as Somantic death. This death is considered to occur just before the cessation of activities within the cells and organs. Within the organs “Blood clotting and cells' death (called autolysis) happen in the close heels of death.” (Gogoi, 2006).
In cases of non-simple death, such as finding a person by the side of the road, all of these signs might not be enough to consider a person ‘dead'. Modern technology allows doctors to restart the heart and respiratory systems, so other methods must be used when judging whether a person needs a doctor or a coroner.
The most obvious sign of death is decomposition. The beginnings of putrefaction happen around 4 minutes after death, and involve the process noted above: Autolysis. This means “self digestion”, and occurs when the cells of the body begin consuming the oxygen within themselves, as the respiration system is no longer providing it. The outside of the body will show this decomposition within a matter of days, showing as “the appearance of fluid-filled blisters on the skin and skin slippage” (Vass, 2001). Signs of putrefaction will then occur, with the build up of fluids and gas: the release of these elements is the beginning of external decomposition. Of course, there will also be massive insect activity (insects arrive 10 minutes after death), and other processes, such as diagenesis (which includes adsorption of matter into the bone surface, and leeching from the bone). A body in a stage of decomposition like this is unquestionably dead, although decomposition does not happen by the clock, and many circumstances can occur to prevent it: Vass describes a case where a murdered woman was “Sprayed with insecticide (And other chemicals) by the perpetrator to mask the odour of decomposition” (Vass, 2001). This altered the decomposition of the corpse so that a woman dead for 4 months seemed recently deceased. Decomposition is also an unreliable factor in deciding the case of persons who have been dead for a matter of minutes. In cases such as these, there are a number of other factors which can decide whether a person is alive or dead.
Ocular changes: When death occurs, the eyes may become fixed, and the pupils will be unresponsive to light. Shortly after death, a thin film will cover the cornea of an open eye: this may be delayed where the eyes are closed. The retinal blood columns will be segmented, in some cases. Clouding of the cornea will happen in the next couple of hours after death. In checking the body for vital signs, fixing of the pupils, film or clouding on the eye can be taken to indicate death. Should a body have been dead more than one or two days, the eyes may also show Tache noire: which are black spots on the cornea, and only occurs if the eyelids have remained upon after death.
Pallor: Shortly after death, the body becomes very pale, a condition known as pallor mortis. This is gradually overtaken by Livor mortis, which is commonly described as Lividity or post-mortem hypostasis, and usually appears within half-an-hour to two hours after death. Livor mortis involves the sinking of blood into compressed areas of the body (I.e., the places where the body is touching something, such as a floor). Gravitational pull means that lividity occurs at the bottom of the body: hanging victims may suffer ‘Stockings and gloves' lividity, where the hands and feet take on much of the Livor mortis. A second sign of pallor mortis is the loss of skin elasticity.
Algor Mortis. This is the well-established process by which a body cools. Bodies generally cool at a fixed rate, beginning at the moment of death. For a brief period, the body may actually increase in temperature, but will then begin cooling according to the normal processes. Considerations such as body temperature, the environment, the amount of clothing on the body, and the person's body temp at death all affect this process. While external factors may have some influence, the glaister equation (98F [37C] - rectal temp)/1.5 generally gives an accurate prediction of hours since death. Discovering a body which is colder than normal body temperature therefore implies death has occurred, and is in fact one of the most important methods of distinguishing between the living and the dead.
Flaccidity: despite the common perceptions of rigor mortis, the muscles will generally become extremely flaccid in the moments after death. Parts of the body which are touching other surfaces will flatten (if the body is face-up, this will be the back, buttocks, and lower legs). Called contact flattening, the limbs are still flexible, and will be so until rigor mortis occurs. A person discovered with such contact flattening on their body may be considered dead (however, they may already be in rigor mortis if the death has been traumatic, or under the special circumstances described below.
Rigor mortis: The stiffening of the limbs after death; from flaccidity, the muscles of the body gradually stiffen (and hence the slang phrase ‘stiff' for a corpse). Rigor will usually begin around three to four hours after death. The speed at which the muscle develops rigor is the same, but the rate at which the stiffening of the muscles is evident depends upon the size of the muscle: the eyelids are usually the first to stiffen, with hands and other small muscles stiffening first.
There are a number of circumstances which mean that rigor mortis may occur within moments of death: violent struggles, high body temperature (with fever, for example), or convulsions will mean that rigor begins sooner. There is also a phenomenon called Cadaveric Spasm: “Cadaveric spasm in muscles of hand gripping weapon…weeds, mud etc…and cadaveric spasm in soldiers in battle field.” (Gupta, Jani, Singh, 2004). Onset of rigor may also be very rapid in young infants. It is possible to say that any body showing signs of stiffening should be considered dead.
These are some of the instances under which a dead person might be distinguished from the living. Unlike modern TV programs, which attempt to show forensic examiners as diagnosing death immediately, real-life death is a complex process, which can only be discovered through examining a series of physical processes. It is the combination of these processes which allows the forensic expert to determine whether a person is dead.
Bibliography
Capron, Alexander Morgan “Brain Death - Well Settled yet Still Unresolved” New England Journal of Medicine April 19 2001, Volume 344, no 16.
Gogoi, Nilutpal “Delineating Death: Vital Issues concerning Life” 04 October 2006 http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nilutpal_gogoi
Gupta, B.D. Jani, C.B. and Singh “Cadaveric Spasm” Indian Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology 2004 Vol.1 No 3. http://www.icfmt.org/vol1no3.htm
Marchant, Jo and Lucy Middleton “Instant Expert: Death” New Scientist New Scientist.com 01 October 2007-11-12
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws Uniform Determination of Death Act (1980-1981)
Vass, Arpad A “Beyond the Grave - understanding human decomposition” Microbiology Today November 2001, Volume 28,
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