PSYC 2060U Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Permadeath, Brain Death, Agon
Document Summary
Cancer when it metastasizes, bits of tumor travel through the bloodstream and implant and grow in viral organs perhaps the liver, the kidneys, the intestinal tract, the lungs or the brain disrupting their functioning. Dying takes place in 3 phases: the agonal phase: (greek word agon means struggle"), agonal refers to gasps and muscle spasms during the first moments the body cannot sustain life anymore. Clinical death: a short interval follows in which heartbeat, circulation, breathing and brain functioning stop but resuscitation is still possible. Within a few hours, the newly lifeless being appears shrunken, not like the person he/she was when alive. Several decades ago, loss of heartbeat and respiration signified death, there are no longer adequate since resuscitation techniques frequently permit vital signs to be restored. Today, brain death, defined as irreversible cessation of all activity in the brain and the brain stem (controls reflexes), is most widely used in industrialized nations.
