Death

"In coma there is a combination of both syncope and asphyxia leading to death. It is due to paralysis or insensibility of vital centers in the brain stem."

"Asphyxial deaths are said to be caused by failure of cells to receive and/ or utilize oxygen. The deprivation of oxygen may be partial (w:Hypoxia|hypoxia]]/suboxia) or total (anoxia/anoxemia). The terminologies anoxia, anoxemia, suboxia, hypoxia, etc. are though considered better ones the terminology “asphyxia” has been accepted in medico legal sense globally."

"Although drowning may be considered a specialized form of asphyxia in which environmental oxygen (air) is displaced by a liquid (usually water), the mechanism of death is much more complicated as it also involves hydrostatic and osmotic effects of inhaled fluid within the small airways."

"In smothering, blockage of the mouth and nose results in failure of oxygen to enter the lungs and reach the blood. ... and results from poisoning of vital cell processes that prevent tissues from receiving or utilizing the available oxygen."

"In the 13th century a manual was prescribed in China for examination of injuries caused by different weapons, investigation of death from asphyxia and other causes."

"It has been scientifically accepted that pressure on the neck can result in occlusion of neck structures for respiratory functioning, developing asphyxia. Experimentally it is proved that pressure/ force of 3 l/2 to 5 kg weight on the neck can occlude jugular vein and carotid arteries, 15 kg can occlude trachea and 16 kg can occlude vertebral arteries. All these can bring about gross decrease in cerebral blood flow leading to cerebral anoxia, aspyhixia and death."

"One of my favorite methods of escape was what amounts to gentle asphyxiation. I used a piece of cloth that I cut from the remnants of a blanket. I called it my dream rag. I wet it with sea water so that it was soaked but not dripping. [...]. I would fall into a daze, not difficult for someone in such an advanced state of lethargy to begin with. But the dream rag gave a special quality to my daze. It must have been the way it restricted my air intake. I would be visited by the most extraordinary dreams, trances, visions, thoughts, sensations, remembrances. And time would be gobbled up."

"Big handfuls of pills, munch em up. That peculiar blue cast of the fingernails following asphyxiation—in its final grim struggle to survive the brain takes all the oxygen that is left, even that in those living cells under the nails."

"This wasteful governing by fear, by contempt for the basic dignities of life, this steady asphyxiation of a dependent people, should be the very last means to be adopted by those who themselves know too well the awful significance, the unforgettable suffering of such an existence. It is unworthy of my great people, the Jews, who have striven to abide by a code of moral rectitude for some 5,000 years, who can create and achieve a society for themselves such as we see around us but can yet deny the sharing of its great qualities and benefits to those dwelling amongst them."

"In the last two decades of the twentieth century, hundreds of people have died of carbon dioxide asphyxiation near volcanoes in Cameroon and in Indonesia."

"A death is attributed to asphyxia only when the asphyxia itself is the condition that directly causes the death.... Asphyxia (Greek for “breathlessness”) is defined as the lack of oxygen in the blood or the failure of cells to utilize oxygen, and a failure of the body to eliminate carbon dioxide. Asphyxial deaths are commonly divided into different categories based on the nature of the cause for inadequate respiration. Asphyxial deaths include suffocation, smothering, choking, positional asphyxia, mechanical asphyxia, traumatic asphyxia, hanging, strangulation, and “chemical” asphyxia."

"A Pledge to Six Million: It is beyond mortal power to bring back to life six million who were burned, asphyxiated, and buried alive by the Nazis. But our six million brothers and sisters who went to their deaths have bequeathed us a sacred injunction: to prevent such a disaster overtaking the Jewish peoples in the future and to do so by the Jewish people being an independent people in its own land, capable of resisting any foe or enemy by its own strength."

"While the term asphyxia literally means without a pulse, modern usage limits its application to cases where the body has been exposed to a significant reduction in oxygen levels resulting in impaired tissue oxygenation (delivery of oxygen to the body’s cells)."

"If asphyxia is considered pathophysiologically, there are four stages where the transfer of oxygen can be compromised i.e., oxygen reduction at the cellular level may be caused by (1) decreased amounts of oxygen in the environment, (2) reduced transfer from the air to the blood, (3) reduced transport from the lungs to the tissues, and (4) reduced transfer across cell membranes."

"Could you believe it possible that through such a night as this they choose to sleep under those wadded cotton coverlets, and dread not instantaneous asphyxiation?"

"We realize this is an excruciating time for the families of those on board. No words can describe the pain they must be going through. We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of the families and those watching around the world."

"Our sincerest condolences go out to the loved ones of the 239 passengers, friends and colleagues. Words alone cannot express our enormous sorrow and pain."

"Goodnight Malaysian Three Seven Zero"

"Obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope - no more than hope, no more than hope - that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft."

"I have been very hopeful because it was intentionally diverted, so I don't believed it was crashed," he said. "It's been a very, very difficult time, and very emotionally stressing. The area where Australia is looking - I was a captain at sea - I have been through that area several times. This area has got a concentration of garbage - plastics and wood. I don't know, I don't want to believe it as yet."

"We demand the Malaysian side state the detailed evidence that leads them to this judgement, as well as supply all the relevant information and evidence about the satellite data analysis. The search and rescue work cannot stop now. We demand the Malaysian side continue to finish all the work including search and rescue."

"There’s always this question: Have we missed something? That’s the sort of thing that will occasionally keep me awake at night. We were ready for most things, but MH370 has been unpredictable all the way through."

"In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues."

"If they have a strong feeling or indication that the debris belongs to the aircraft, one of the first things authorities will do is drop sonar buoys in the water. If the black box (flight recorder) is there, the buoys should be able to pick up the signals. This could take up to 48 hours but it all depends on how near or far the ships and other assets are."

"Tantalisingly, later next century and beyond, our transhuman descendants may well enjoy lifelong (super-)happiness and quasi-eternal youth. By contrast, most if not all early twenty-first century humans are destined to crumble away and perish. If implemented, however, a stopgap regime of opt-out cryonics, and opt-in cryothanasia, can potentially defang death for secular rationalists, and even offer a backup insurance policy for religious believers. Therefore political lobbying for regulatory change should be a priority. If successful, then visiting absent loved ones in the cryonics tank can become the norm rather than the exception."

"We’ll look back on this 50 to 100 years from now — we’ll shake our heads and say, “What were people thinking? They took these people who were very nearly viable, just barely dysfunctional, and they put them in an oven or buried them under the ground, when there were people who could have put them into cryopreservation." I think we’ll look at this just as we look today at slavery, beating women, and human sacrifice, and we’ll say, “this was insane — a huge tragedy.""

"If cryonics were a scam it would have far better marketing and be far more popular."

"I feel pleased with the rate of progress of interest in life-extension that is now developing. I am more concerned about the rate of growth of interest in cryonics — since this is the "first aid" which may be necessary for some of us to reach the time when biological aging is no longer a part of normal human life. The decision to include cryonics in a program of life extension requires a great stride beyond the more usual methods of safe and health-conscious living. Cryonics may be an advanced form of medicine that can greatly extend lifespan. Cryonics is not anti-religious or a means to prevent ultimate death. I hope that those who deeply care about their lives and the lives of their loved-ones will increasingly learn to be open to the life-saving potential of cryonics and other practical strategies for survival — and not be distracted by fantasies of physical immortality."

"Cryonics is a legitimate science-based endeavor that seeks to preserve human beings, especially the human brain, by the best technology available. Future technologies for resuscitation can be envisioned that involve molecular repair by nanomedicine, highly advanced computation, detailed control of cell growth, and tissue regeneration. With a view toward these developments, there is a credible possibility that cryonics performed under the best conditions achievable today can preserve sufficient neurological information to permit eventual restoration of a person to full health. The rights of people who choose cryonics are important, and should be respected."

"Cryonics is the second worst thing that can happen to you."

"I wish it were possible...to invent a method of embalming drowned persons, in such a manner that they might be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to an ordinary death, being immersed with a few friends in a cask of Madeira, until that time, then to be recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country! But... in all probability, we live in a century too little advanced, and too near the infancy of science, to see such an art brought in our time to its perfection..."

"They're very much like people in a long-term coma, except there is no metabolism. They're not alive, but they're not dead. In our view, dying is a process, and Cryonics stops that process and puts it on pause, and lets you go into the future where we have greater capabilities to reverse that and bring you back to life. Around -100°C, the body becomes a true solid, so it does not matter if you wait a day or 100 years, you will be the same as when you started."

"The act of freezing a dead body and storing it indefinitely on the chance that some future generation may restore it to life is an act of faith, not science."

"When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed. The loss of happy life for the first infant is outweighed by the gain of a happier life for the second. Therefore, if killing the hemophiliac infant has no adverse effect on others, it would, according to the total view, be right to kill him."

"I use the term "person" to refer to a being who is capable of anticipating the future, of having wants and desires for the future... I think that it is generally a greater wrong to kill such a being than it is to kill a being that has no sense of existing over time. Newborn human babies have no sense of their own existence over time. So killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living. That doesn’t mean that it is not almost always a terrible thing to do. It is, but that is because most infants are loved and cherished by their parents, and to kill an infant is usually to do a great wrong to its parents. Sometimes, perhaps because the baby has a serious disability, parents think it better that their newborn infant should die. Many doctors will accept their wishes, to the extent of not giving the baby life-supporting medical treatment. That will often ensure that the baby dies. My view is different from this, only to the extent that if a decision is taken, by the parents and doctors, that it is better that a baby should die, I believe it should be possible to carry out that decision, not only by withholding or withdrawing life-support – which can lead to the baby dying slowly from dehydration or from an infection - but also by taking active steps to end the baby’s life swiftly and humanely."

"Singer is right that on the basis of his premises there is no relevant difference between abortion and the killing of “severely disabled infants.” But why does he confine the comparison to newborn infants who are severely disabled? He certainly does not confine abortion to severely disabled fetuses. If newborns, like unborn children, are not persons, and it is permissible to abort unborn children regardless of whether they are afflicted or healthy, then newborns, afflicted or healthy, should be subject to killing too, provided of course that “on balance, and taking into account the interests of everyone affected,” their killing will increase the total amount of happiness or satisfied preferences in the world. Singer certainly offers no good utilitarian reason to confine the killing to severely disabled newborns."

"Cryonics might be a suitable subject for scientific research, but marketing an unproven method to the public is quackery."

"The offence is what is improperly called the death of an infant, who has ceased to be, before knowing what existence is, — a result of a nature not to give the slightest inquietude to the most timid imagination; and which can cause no regrets but to the very person who, through a sentiment of shame and pity, has refused to prolong a life begun under the auspices of misery."

"I have little sympathy with the idea that infanticide is just another form of murder. Persons who are already functionally persons in the full sense have more important rights even than infants. Infanticide can be wrong without being fully comparable to the killing of persons in the full sense."

"The Spaniards in Mexico and Peru used to baptize Indian infants and then immediately dash their brains out: by this means they secured these infants went to Heaven."

"In me thou see'st the twilight of such day, As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long."

"For he being dead, with him is beauty slain, And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again."

"Come away, come away, death, And in sad cypress let me be laid; Fly away, fly away, breath: I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, Oh, prepare it! My part of death no one so true Did share it."

"He that dies pays all debts."

"The youth that you see here I snatch'd one half out of the jaws of death."

"Who pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood With that grim ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night."

"Here is my journey's end, here is my butt, And very sea-mark of my utmost sail."

"'Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord, When men are unprepared and look not for it."

"After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, Can touch him further."

"Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it."