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A strictly biological definition of death as a specific event is both possible & socially desirable. Contrary to L. C. Becker (see SA 24:5/76I1544), brain-stem death, as defined by the Harvard Committee of 1968, provides a satisfactory definition of death, since it provides as equally valid a yardstick as the conventional criteria of cessation of respiration & of the heartbeats. The convergence of transplant surgery with extraordinary methods of resuscitation has led to considerable confusion concerning the boundaries of life & has placed the issue of an alternative biological criterion of death in the foreground of public interest. The concept of a biological definition of death is defended against proposals to redefine death in terms of social, economic, or morally relevant criteria. The criteria for diagnosing death, being strictly biological, must be distinguished from discussions concerning the quality of residual life & decisions as to when, if ever, the existence of a living being should be terminated. Following a survey of changing attitudes toward the traditional diagnosis of death within the medical profession, the actual criteria for the diagnosis of brain-stem death is examined & then defended against the accusation that any departure from criteria based on the cessation of the heart & respiratory organs must constitute an "artificial advancement of death." AA.

Intifada deaths that occurred during the fourteen months between November 1988 and December 1989 are analysed in regard of eight patterns: frequency of deaths, age of the victims, days with deaths, location of deaths, suspicious deaths, escalation and inhibition, tear gas deaths, and killings by settlers. The article uses data provided by the Database Project on Palestinian Human Rights, an American organization affiliated with the Palestinian Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem. (DÜI-Hns)

The article attempts to interpret violence as a struggle against death,
carried out by its own means. In emancipating himself from dependence on
nature, man generates in his creative ?lan his own universe of socioculture,
equivalent to the natural world. Death, however, cannot receive any
constructive substitution, trampled by death itself. Violence in our social
life prevents the negation, with which the presence of the Other threatens
us. By confron?tation with the Other, we reach our final frontier.

Every fourth morning in Melbourne a mother goes to pick up her baby from its cot only to find that her baby is dead. This statement, which ignores the seasonal incidence of cot death, does indicate however both the frequency and the tragic drama of cot death.The first recorded case of probable cot death in Australia was recorded in 1810. I say probable as we have no means of knowing whether it would really fit the currently accepted definition of cot death which is "the sudden and unexpected death of an infant in whom a thorough post mortem examination does not disclose an adequate cause of death". Some infants do die suddenly and unexpectedly from diseases such as myocarditis, meningitis, and gastro-enteritis. But these conditions are readily recognised by the pathologist who examines the baby after death. It is when he is unable to find evidence of any such lethal disease after a thorough examination that he records his verdict as cot death, or as it is usually labelled these days, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS.

This paper shows how individuals in late modern social conditions seek to imbue dying, and caring for the dying, with meaning. Accounts provided in a survey of 250 individuals who knew people who had died in the UK are examined. The analysis counters the view that the denial of death is widespread in conditions where religion no longer offers individuals a meaningful narrative for the dying self. Scripts for proclaiming heroic self-identity in the face of death are promoted by cultural experts and appropriated by many lay individuals. This involves a struggle against external and internal enemies to gain knowledge, the opportunity to demonstrate courage and a beatific state of emotional accompaniment in which `carers' and dying people participate. Unlike more traditional forms of heroism, this script deviates from celebrating solely masculine qualities and includes a female heroics of care, concern and emotional expression.At the same time, some deaths cannot be written into this script, which is particularly well suited to deaths from cancer and AIDs. The deaths of the very old, the mentally confused and sudden unexpected deaths are often difficult to interpret in these heroic terms. Additionally, a rival script exists amongst some lay individuals that stands in opposition to the professional consensus on the desirability of open awareness. This emphasises the benefits of continuing the everyday project of the self oblivious of oncoming death, with others shouldering the burden of awareness in an attempt to protect the dying person against the strain of knowledge. This rival script, however, commands decreasing allegiance in a society where the project of the self is rarely given over to the care of others, and trust is commonly negotiated in confessional moments.

Between 8 December 1987 and 31 October 1988 at least 287 Palestinians died as a direct result of the intifadah. A statistical analysis of those deaths and of the characteristics of the victims shows that death patterns have not been uniform across time but have varied considerably from month to month as the uprising - and Israeli government policy - have passed through different phases. Four key patterns are discussed: the frequency and magnitude of death; the spread of the uprising; the age of the victims; and the day of death. (DÜI-Hns)

"Death in Vienna" is intended as an introduction to this themed issue on The Dark Spectacle: Landscapes of Devastation in Film and Photography. Drawing on Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others, the articles gathered here address the representation of unsettling subject matter (war, ecological catastrophe, destructive urbanization) in a variety of visual media. The collection's specific focus is on the important role played by space in the depiction of disturbing events. Do images portraying death and destruction generate documents, or do they create works of art? Does their beauty drain "attention from the sobering subject?" "Death in Vienna" addresses these and other related questions with reference to Yevgeny Khaldei's photography, specifically a shocking image he took in Vienna during the final days of the World War II. Together with Sontag, this article also questions our "right to look" at images of extreme suffering.

This chapter explores knowledge practices around the subject of capital punishment. Capital sentencing jurisprudence and certain strands of academic scholarship on the death penalty have certain resonances with recent developments in reflexive cultural anthropology. Using the notion of productive unraveling, this chapter seeks to reinforce relations between these various knowledge practices by conceiving of them as situated on the same ground, already interwoven with one another. This chapter presents itself as both an example of and a call for the development of interconnections between these various kinds of expert knowledges concerning the death penalty. [Copyright 2007 Elsevier Ltd.]

Ideological beliefs have long attracted the attention of social psychologists, who have investigated their genesis as well as their influence on a host of social phenomena. Conservatism, from the Motivated Social Cognition framework, stems from epistemic and existential needs of the individual, and notably the fear of death. However, Terror Management Theory proposes a view of conservatism and its contrary, liberalism, as equivalent cultural worldviews, equally fit to fulfill such needs. In the present contribution, results are presented from five studies, which test the contrasting hypotheses derived from these two perspectives. A new perspective is considered that accounts for these and previous findings.

Evans reviews The Death of Kings: Royal Deaths in Medieval England by Michael Evans.

This essay aims to give an overview of Hong Kong queer media productions by presenting specific media representations that speak to local queer sensibilities and sexual politics. I investigate the nature of a localized queer nonchalance that cultivates an environment readable as both tolerant and limiting of queer desires, as well as resistant of the rumors of a broader cultural death. One of the case studies includes, to use Helen Hok-Sze Leung's term, "do-it-yourself" queer cultural projects that focus on reaching out to LGBT communities rather than to a wider mainstream public reception. Another example involves gender-crossing performances and cultural productions from mainstream media icons in popular culture. Finally, I discuss gossip magazine coverage of queer celebrity rumors. I locate my concerns in questioning whether mass-media practices can perversely normalize same-sex sexuality in our everyday lives.