Paul M. Insel,
Stanford University School of Medicine
Walton T. Roth,
Stanford University School of Medicine
| *brain death | A medical definition of death as the cessation of brain activity indicated by various diagnostic criteria, including a flat EEG reading.
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| electroencephalogram (EEG) | A record of the electrical activity of the brain (brain waves).
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| clinical death | A determination of death made according to accepted medical criteria.
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| cellular death | The total breakdown of metabolic processes at the level of the cell.
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| *noncorporeal continuity | The notion that human beings survive in some form after the death of the physical body.
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| *will | A legal instrument expressing a person's intentions and wishes for the disposition of his or her property after death.
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| *testator | A person who makes a will.
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| *intestate | Referring to the situation in which a person dies without having made a legal will.
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| *palliative care | A form of medical care aimed at reducing the intensity or severity of a disease by controlling pain and other discomforting symptoms.
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| hospice | A program of care for dying patients and their families.
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| *persistent vegetative state | A condition of profound unconsciousness in which a person lacks normal reflexes and is unresponsive to external stimuli, lasting for an extended period with no reasonable hope of improvement.
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| *passive euthanasia | The practice of withholding (not starting) or withdrawing (stopping) treatment that could potentially sustain a person's life, with the recognition that without such treatment, death is likely to occur.
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| *physician-assisted suicide (PAS) | The practice of a physician intentionally providing, at the patient's request, lethal drugs or other means for a patient to hasten death with the understanding that the patient plans to use them to end her or his life.
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| *advance directive | Any statement made by a competent person about his or her choices for medical treatment should he or she become unable to make such decisions or communicate them in the future.
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| *living will | A type of advance directive that allows individuals to provide instructions about the kind of medical care they wish to receive if they become unable to participate in treatment decisions.
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| Uniform Donor Card | A consent form authorizing the use of the signer's body parts for transplantation or medical research upon his or her death.
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| *memorial society | A nonprofit membership group that provides simple and economical burial or cremation.
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| *embalming | The process of removing blood and other fluids and replacing them with chemicals to disinfect and temporarily retard deterioration of the corpse.
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| *grief | A person's reaction to loss as manifested physically, emotionally, mentally, and behaviorally.
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| life-support systems | Medical technologies, such as the respirator, that allow vital body functions to be artificially sustained.
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| mature understanding of death | The recognition that death is universal and irreversible, that it involves the cessation of all physiological functioning, and that there are biological reasons for its occurrence.
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| estate | The money, property, and other possessions belonging to a person.
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| double effect | A situation in which a harmful effect occurs as an unintended side-effect of a beneficial action, such as when medication intended to control a patient's pain has the unintended result of causing the patient's death.
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| active euthanasia | A deliberate act intended to end another person's life; voluntary active euthanasia involves the practice of a physician administering-at the request of a patient-medication or other intervention that causes death.
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| health care proxy | A type of advance directive that allows an individual to appoint another person s an agent in making health care decisions in the event he or she becomes unable to participate in treatment decisions; also known as a durable power of attorney for health care.
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| surrogate | The agent or substitute decision maker appointed by a person to act on his or her behalf by means of a health care proxy.
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| middle knowledge | A state of knowing when a person both acknowledges the reality of a threatening situation and maintains hope for a positive outcome.
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| defense mechanism | Unconscious mental processes that alter a person's internal psychological states in reaction to a threat without affecting the external problem.
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| coping strategies | Conscious, purposeful efforts employed with the intention of controlling a threatening or stressful situation or problem.
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| trajectory of dying | The duration and nature of a person's experience in approaching death as influenced by the underlying cause of dying.
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| bereavement | The objective event of loss.
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| mourning | The process whereby a person actively copes with grief in adjusting to a loss and integrating it into his or her life.
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education