The official death rates from suicide vary considerably between countries in the world for which data are available. They range from 3 to 45 persons a year, per 100,000 of population. Historically, the higher rates of suicide are in the older age groups and in males. However, the general trend in the last twenty years has been for suicide increasing in the younger age groups (15-34) and in femah;s. It has been suggested that thi~ development is related to the phenomenon of attempted suicide, of which the rates in most industrialized countries have doubled and in some countries even tripled over the past two decades. The average rate of attempted suicide is now estimated to be around 200 per 100,000 for males and 350 for females. Almost two-thirds of these occur before the age of thirty. Although the majority of attempted suicide are not intended to be lethal, once a suicide attempt has been made, there is more likelihood of subsequent death by suicide. As many as ten percent of people who have made a previous unsuccessful attempt commit suicide at a later stage in their lives. rersons with increased likelihood to commit suicide are youngsters from disrupted families and from families with a history of suicide, drug and alcohol addiction, those who have failed at school, the unemployed and those suffering from depression.

The taboo on death is at last breaking down. There is far greater receptivity to informed discussion about death and dying. Dying with dignity is one major issue: euthanasia and the 'natural death movement' are the latest stages in a debate first stimulated by the hospice movement. Media treatment of the bereaved, especially after disasters, has attracted some adverse criticism, yet after the decline of traditional customs of mourning, people seek new models of acceptable behaviour at a time of death. The book argues that attitudes to death and to disposal are culturally formed and examines the factors in the formation and decline of such attitudes by analysing specific issues over four centuries of death.

Perfect for school and public libraries, this is the only reference book to combine pop culture with science to uncover the mystery behind mummies and the mummification phenomena. Mortality and death have always fascinated humankind. Civilizations from all over the world have practiced mummification as a means of preserving life after death-a ritual which captures the imagination of scientists, artists, and laypeople alike. This comprehensive encyclopedia focuses on all aspects of mummies: their ancient and modern history; their scientific study; their occurrence around the world; the religious and cultural beliefs surrounding them; and their roles in literary and cinematic entertainment. Author and horror guru Matt Cardin brings together 130 original articles written by an international roster of leading scientists and scholars to examine the art, science, and religious rituals of mummification throughout history. Through a combination of factual articles and topical essays, this book reviews cultural beliefs about death; the afterlife; and the interment, entombment, and cremation of human corpses in places like Egypt, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Additionally, the book covers the phenomenon of natural mummification where environmental conditions result in the spontaneous preservation of human and animal remains. Includes photographs, reproductions of ancient art, images from films and television, and a bibliography to encourage further research Features profiles of famous archaeologists and key figures who have been instrumental in bringing the mummy to modern consciousness Contains various timelines tracing the exploration of the Egyptian tombs, the birth of modern genetic and radiologic methods of study, the evolution of mummies in film and literature, and the history of mummies around the world Highlights key facts and interesting trivia related to mummies in helpful sidebars Offers an extensive bibliography to encourage further reading

Volume Three in the Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press is in honor of Albert Einstein and Soren Kierkegaard. The chapters do not necessarily mention Einstein or Kierkegaard. The 17 chapters (by professional philosophers and other professional scholars) are directed to issues related to death, life extension, and anti-death. Most of the 400-plus pages consists of scholarship unique to this volume. Includes Index. ---CHAPTER ONE: Death And Life Support Systems: A Novel Cultural Exploration by Giorgio Baruchello. ---CHAPTER TWO: Recent Developments In The Ethics, Science, And Politics Of Life-Extension by Nick Bostrom. ---CHAPTER THREE: Life, And The Concept Of A Relativistic Field In Kant by Douglas Burnham. ---CHAPTER FOUR: Towards An Ethics Of Ontogeny by Anthony S. Dawber. ---CHAPTER FIVE: An Easy Death by Mikhail Epstein. ---CHAPTER SIX: Fear Of Death And Muddled Thinking -- It Is So Much Worse Than You Think by Robin Hanson. ---CHAPTER SEVEN: The Illusiveness Of Immortality by James J. Hughes. ---CHAPTER EIGHT: A Question Of Endings by Lawrence Kimmel. ---CHAPTER NINE: What Is Left After Death? by Jack Lee. ---CHAPTER TEN: Life Extension And Pleasure: Can The Prolongation Of (Self) Consciousness Deliver Greater Pleasure Or Happiness? by Carol O'Brien. ---CHAPTER ELEVEN: Raising The Dead Scientifically: Fedorov's Project In A Modern Form by R. Michael Perry. ---CHAPTER TWELVE: The Emulation Argument: A Modification Of Bostrom's Simulation Argument by Charles Tandy. ---CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Managing The Consequences Of Rapid Social Change by Natasha Vita-More. ---CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eros And Thanatos -- The Establishment Of Individuality by Werner J. Wagner. ---CHAPTERFIFTEEN: Universal Superlongevity: Is It Inevitable And Is It Good? by Mark Walker. ---CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Return To A Pristine Ecosphere Via Molecular Nanotechnology by Sinclair T. Wang. ---CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Fedorov's Legacy: The Cosmist View Of Man's Role In The Universe by George M. Young.

This book utilises a dynamic analysis of mortality to acknowledge shifts of emphasis in cultural and religious traditions. A central concern is the diversity of representations of death to be found within the varying cultural, religious, medical and legal systems of contemporary western societies. Since the construction of death mores has social implications, a major element of the book is an examination of the way in which groups and individuals employ specific representations of mortality in order to generate meaning and purpose for life and death.

'Fascinating... life affirming' Times Literary Supplement 'Without exaggeration, an awe-inspiring achievement' Nigella Lawson Chosen as an Irish Times Book of the Year In this profoundly moving and remarkable book, journalist Hayley Campbell explores society's attitudes towards death, and the impact on those who work with it every day. 'If the reason we're outsourcing this burden is because it's too much for us,' she asks, 'how do they deal with it?' Would facing death directly make us fear it less? Inspired by her own childhood fascination with the subject, she meets embalmers and a former death row executioner, mass fatality investigators and a bereavement midwife. She talks to gravediggers who have already dug their own graves and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear. Through Campbell's incisive and candid interviews with people who see death every day, she asks: Does seeing death change you as a person? And are we all missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? 'Moving, funny, and liable to unexpectedly cause me to tear up' Neil Gaiman 'Essential, compassionate, honest' Audrey Niffenegger

Challenging the widely held notion of a hospice as a building or a place, this book argues that it should instead be a philosophy of care. It proposes that the positive and negative impact that space can have in the pursuit of an ideal such as hospice care has previously been underestimated. Whether it be a purpose-built hospice, part of a hospital, a nursing home or within the home, a hospice is anchored by space and spatial practices, and these spatial practices are critical for a holistic approach to dying with dignity. Such spatial practices are understood as part of a broad architectural, social, conceptual and theoretical process. By linking health, social and architectural theory and establishing conceptual principles, this book defines 'hospice' as a philosophy that is underpinned by space and spatial practice. In putting forward the notion of 'hospice space', removed from the bounds of a specific building type, it suggests that hospice philosophy could and should be available within any setting of choice where the spatial practices support that philosophy, be it home, nursing home, hospice or 'hospice-friendly-hospitals'.

There have been five different settings that at one time or another have contained the dead body of Mustafa Kemal AtatA1/4rk, organizer of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) and first president of the Republic of Turkey. Narrating the story of these different architectural constructions - the bedroom in DolmabahAe Palace, Istanbul, where he died; a temporary catafalque in this same palace; his funeral stage in Turkey's new capital Ankara; a temporary tomb in the Ankara Ethnographic Museum; and his permanent and monumental mausoleum in Ankara, known in Turkish as 'Anitkabir' (Memorial Tomb) - this book also describes and interprets the movement of AtatA1/4rk's body through the cities of Istanbul and Ankara and also the nation of Turkey to reach these destinations. It examines how each one of these locations - accidental, designed, temporary, permanent - has contributed in its own way to the construction of a Turkish national memory about AtatA1/4rk. Lastly, the two permanent constructions - the DolmabahAe Palace bedroom and Anitkabir - have changed in many ways since their first appearance in order to maintain this national memory. These changes are exposed to reveal a dynamic, rather than dull, impression of funerary architecture.

We have lost the ability to deal with death. Most of our friends and beloved relations will die in a busy hospital in the care of strangers, doctors and nurses they have known at best for a couple of weeks. They may not even know they are dying, victims of the kindly lie that there is still hope. They are unlikely to see even their family doctor in their final hours, robbed of their dignity and fed through a tube after a long series of excessive and hopeless medical interventions. This is the starting point of Seamus O'Mahoney's thoughtful, moving and unforgettable book on the western way of death. Dying has never been more public, with celebrities writing detailed memoirs of their illness, but in private we have done our best to banish all thought of dying and made a good death increasingly difficult to achieve.

The first in-depth study of the ceremonial and music performed at British royal and state funerals over the past 400 years. British royal and state funerals are among the most elaborate and solemn occasions in European history. This book is the first in-depth study of the ceremonial and the music performed at these events over the past 400 years, fromthe funeral of Elizabeth I in 1603. Covering funerals of both royalty and non-royalty, including Nelson, Wellington and Churchill, this study goes up to the funerals of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002 and the ceremonial funeral of Baroness Thatcher in 2013. While some of these funerals have received a good deal of attention - especially the 1997 funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales - these extraordinary events have largely not been discussed in their longer historical context. The book examines the liturgical changes in the Anglican funeral rite since the Reformation and also the change from the so-called 'public' to 'private' funerals. It includes many new findings onthe development of the ceremonial and its intricate peculiarities, as well as new insights into the music and its performance. British Royal and State Funerals shows that, despite a strong emphasis on continuity in the choice of music, the ceremonial itself has shown an astonishing flexibility over the last four centuries. Overall, the book also contributes to the debate on the monarchy's changing public image over time by paying particular attention to topics such as tradition and propaganda. Drawing on substantial research in principal libraries and archives, including those of Westminster Abbey, the College of Arms, Lambeth Palace and the British Library, this book is an exhaustive resource for musicologists, musicians and historians alike, providing an unprecedented insight into this most sombre of royal and state occasions. MATTHIAS RANGE is author of Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations (2012). He is a post-doctoral researcher for the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music and its partner AHRC-funded Tudor Partbooks project at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford.

The Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press discusses issues and controversies related to death, life extension, and anti-death. A variety of differing points of view are presented and argued. Death And Anti-Death, Volume 11: Ten Years After Donald Davidson (1917-2003) is edited by Charles Tandy, Ph.D.: ISBN 978-1-934297-17-9 is the Hardback edition and ISBN 978-1-934297-18-6 is the Paperback edition. Volume 11, as indicated by the anthology's subtitle, is in honor of Donald Davidson (1917-2003). The chapters do not necessarily mention him (but some chapters do). The chapters (by professional philosophers and other professional scholars) are directed to issues related to death, life extension, and anti-death, broadly construed. Most of the contributions consist of scholarship unique to this volume. As was the case with all previous volumes in the Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press, the anthology includes an Index as well as an Abstracts section that serves as an extended table of contents. There are 12 chapters, as follows: ------CHAPTER ONE Do We Really Want Immortality? (by David Brin) pages 25-42; ------CHAPTER TWO The Importance Of Being Identical: On How Not To Derive A Contradiction Within A Metaphysical Theory (by Troy Catterson) 43-60; ------CHAPTER THREE In Saecula Saeculorum? Bioscience, Biotechnology And The Construct Of Death: A Neurobioethical View (by Christine Fitzpatrick and James Giordano) 61-80; ------CHAPTER FOUR Making Death Worth Its Cost: Prolegomena To Any Future Necronomics (by Steve Fuller) 81-92; ------CHAPTER FIVE On What Persists After Death (by Vladimir V. Kalugin) 93-104; ------CHAPTER SIX Extreme Lifespans Via Perpetual-Equalising Interventions: The ELPIs Hypothesis (by Marios Kyriazis) 105-124; ------CHAPTER SEVEN What Philosophy Ought To Be (by Nicholas Maxwell) 125-162; ------CHAPTER EIGHT Resurrecting The Dead Through Future Technology: Parallel Recreation As An Alternative To Quantum Archaeology (by R. Michael Perry) 163-172; ------CHAPTER NINE Supervenient Spirituality And The Meaning Of Life (by Gabriel Segal) 173-190; ------CHAPTER TEN What Might It Take To Get From Donald Davidson's Mature Philosophical Position To Recognize The Possibility, And Even Plausibility, Of An Afterlife? (by Charles Taliaferro and Christophe Porot) 191-210; ------CHAPTER ELEVEN Roger Penrose, Rupert Sheldrake, And The Future Of Consciousness (by Charles Tandy) 211-228; ------CHAPTER TWELVE Rational Suicide And Global Suicide In The Amor Fati Of Modal Totality (by Sascha Vongehr) 229-268; ------The INDEX begins on page 269.

Medical advances prolong life. They also sometimes prolong suffering. Should we protect life or alleviate suffering? This dilemma formed the foundation for a powerful right-to-die movement and a counterbalancing concern over an emerging culture of death. What are the qualities of a life worth living? Where are the boundaries of tolerable suffering? This book is based on a hugely popular undergraduate course taught at the University of Texas, and is ideal for those interested in the social construction of social worth, social problems, and social movements. This book is part of a larger text, Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides?, http://www.routledge.com/9780415892476/

Intellectually and visually stimulating, this important landmark book looks at the religious, political, social and artistic significance of the Imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). It traces the evolutionary development of the most elaborately beautiful imperial tombs to examine fundamental issues on death and the afterlife in one of the world's most sophisticated civilizations. Selected tombs are presented in terms of their structure, artistic programs and their purposes. The author sets the tombs in the context of Chinese attitudes towards the afterlife, the politics of mausoleum architecture, and the artistic vocabulary which was becoming the mainstream of Chinese civilization.

Most studies of human development in developing societies have focused on the childhood stage, and in a few cases exploration has extended up to adolescence, since this age group represents about half the population in developing societies. The developed world, however, is experiencing a surge in the elderly population and this has spurred its study. There is growing recognition that studies are needed in order to understand aging in all contexts, and to discover how the experience may differ in developing and developed societies. In this book, the authors discuss the appropriateness or inappropriateness of applying Western theories and perspectives to studies of aging in the developing world.

The present study critically examines the major theories in the area of aging and adult development, covering such domains as the physical, psychological, and social aspects of aging, death and dying, and social and public policies. Applying the concepts of individualism and collectivism, as well as the global and environmental dimensions of the developing world, the authors have earmarked the theories that seem suitable only to the developed world and those that appear to be universally relevant.

The high rate of suicide and self-harm in prisons around the world is of major concern to prison administrators, coroners, all those who work in prisons, observers of the justice system as well as prisoners and their families. This book provides a comprehensive overview of attempts to minimize the incidence of self-harming behaviour in custodial settings. Expert contributors from nine different countries offer a global perspective on what is a widespread problem of international concern.

Although the distinctive - and sometimes bizarre - means by which Roman aristocrats often chose to end their lives has attracted some scholarly attention in the past, most writers on the subject have been content to view this a s an irrational and inexplicable aspect of Roman culture. In this book, T.D. Hill traces the cultural logic which animated these suicides, describing the meaning and significance of such deaths in their original cultural context. Covering the writing of most major Latin authors between Lucretius and Lucan, this book argues that the significance of the 'noble death' in Roman culture cannot be understood if the phenomenon is viewed in the context of modern ideas of the nature of the self.

This book is the first detailed examination of death in early modern Ireland. It deals with the process of dying, the conduct of funerals, the arrangement of burials, the private and public commemoration of the dead, and ideas about the afterlife. It further considers ways in which the living fashioned ceremonies of death and the reputations of the dead to support their own ends.

Purposeful suicide in contemporary Islam and the deep pathos in its frequency for religious ends is the main impulse to the topic of Faith at Suicide. The Islamic phenomenon needs to be set in a wider context which reckons with suicide's incidence elsewhere, with its uneasy associations in martyrdom and with how it interrogates - or is interrogated by - the ethics of religious faith. The enigma of wilful suicide is no less a challenge to sanity or compassion when such faith is absent from the deed or dimly yearned for by it. 'I am pregnant with my cause', orators may boast. But they were never pregnant with themselves. Our birth was unsolicited on our part. We have all to reach a philosophy about our living, which is perpetually at stake and which we are free to curtail. Dark cynics have said that life is no more than forbearing not to commit suicide. While the sheer mystery of birth demands we disavow all such self-refusal, what then of those who resolve to make it forfeit for an end they must also abdicate in doing so? Selves are 'banished and betrayed' when weary despair registers what ill-fate itself has done to them.;It is more darkly so when the precious human frame, the body's wonder, by 'self-bombing' encases lethal death in and for and from itself. This book sets out to explain how the issue of suicide belongs with the conscience of Islam today, and how suicide in all circumstances, with or without religious overtones - be they Islamic or Christian or other faith - is an inherent contradiction of our common humanity, as expressed in human birth which expressly involves us in mankind.

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While health professionals may be adequately informed about the legal aspects of many specialized areas of medicine and nursing, they may not totally understand the law applicable to cases of dying patients, or even the legal definition of death itself. In the wake of advances in medical technology, recent court decisions on the right to die, the enactment of natural death and brain death statutes, advance directives and living wills, and growing use of organ transplantation, there has been widespread concern about the legal and ethical issues surrounding these subjects. This book, written by a lawyer-thanatologist, will satisfy these needs. It is the first work to bring together case and statutory law applicable to dying patients, the right to die, advance directives, brain death, and organ transplantation, thus formulating a law of dying and death.

It is also unique as a self-help law finder. Although occasions that require consultation with a lawyer will arise, this work gives health professionals practical guidance on where and how to find legal materials on these issues. This book should also prove immensely useful in summarizing the law concerning dying and death for professional legal counsel. Medical decisions and issues that once were the sole province of doctors, hospitals, patients, and families have become matters of increasing judicial and legislative attention.

ABOUT THE DEATH AND ANTI-DEATH SERIES: The Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press discusses issues and controversies related to death, life extension, and anti-death. A variety of differing points of view are presented and argued. The following volumes in the series have been published: _________________________________________________ Death And Anti-Death, Volume 1: One Hundred Years After N. F. Fedorov (1829-1903) (Edited By Charles Tandy, Ph.D.) -- ISBN 0-9743472-0-5 is available from most bookstores -- The anthology discusses a number of interdisciplinary cultural, psychological, metaphysical, and moral issues and controversies related to death, life extension, and anti-death. This first volume in the series is in honor of the 19th century Russian philosopher N. F. Fedorov. (Some of the contributions are about Fedorov; most are not.) Each of the 17 chapters includes a selected or short bibliography. The anthology also contains an Introduction and an Index -- as well as an Abstracts section that serves as an extended table of contents. A variety of differing points of view are presented and argued. Most of the 400-plus pages consists of contributions unique to this volume. Although of interest to the general reader, the anthology functions well as a textbook for university courses in culture studies, death-related controversies, ethics, futuristics, humanities, interdisciplinary studies, life extension issues, metaphysics, and psychology. _________________________________________________ Death And Anti-Death, Volume 2: Two Hundred Years After Kant, Fifty Years After Turing (Edited By Charles Tandy, Ph.D.) -- ISBN 0-9743472-2-1 is available from most bookstores -- Thefollowing contributions are original to this volume of the Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press: > Is The Universe Immortal?: Is Cosmic Evolution Never-Ending? (By Charles Tandy) > Death As Metaphor (By Lawrence Kimmel) > Fantasies Of Immortality (By Werner J. Wagner) > What Will The Immortals Eat? (By George M. Young) > Cultural Death Understanding (By Anthony S. Dawber) > Death And Immortality: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas And Descartes On The Soul (By Carol O'Brien) > Against The Immortality Of The Soul (By Matt McCormick) > Why Death Is (Probably) Bad For You: A Common Sense Approach (By R.C.W. Ettinger) > Resurrecting Kant's Postulate Of Immortality (By Scott R. Stroud) > Immortality and Finitude: Kant's Moral Argument Reconsidered (By Douglas Burnham) > Death, Harm, And The Deprivation Theory (By Jack Li) > To Be Or Not To Be: The Zombie In The Computer (By R.C.W. Ettinger) > The Future Of Human Evolution (By Nick Bostrom) > Earthlings Get Off Your Ass Now!: Becoming Person, Learning Community (By Charles Tandy) ABOUT THE EDITOR: Dr. Charles Tandy received his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education from the University of Missouri at Columbia (USA) before becoming a Visiting Scholar in the Philosophy Department at Stanford University (USA). Presently Dr. Tandy is Associate Professor of Humanities, and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Philosophic Studies, at Fooyin University (Taiwan). Dr. Tandy is author or editor of numerous publications, including The Philosophy Of Robert Ettinger (2002); and, Death And Anti-Death, Volume 1 (2003). For more information, see .

Death And Anti-Death, Volume 10: Ten Years After John Rawls (1921-2002) is edited by Charles Tandy, Ph.D. and Jack Lee, Ph.D.: ISBN 978-1-934297-15-5 is the Hardback edition and ISBN 978-1-934297-16-2 is the Paperback edition. Volume 10, as indicated by the anthology's subtitle, is in honor of John Rawls (1921-2002). The chapters do not necessarily mention him (but some chapters do). The chapters (by professional philosophers and other professional scholars) are directed to issues related to death, life extension, and anti-death, broadly construed. Most of the contributions consist of scholarship unique to this volume. As was the case with all previous volumes in the Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press, the anthology includes an Index as well as an Abstracts section that serves as an extended table of contents. There are 11 chapters, as follows: ------CHAPTER ONE Autonomy, Contingency, And Mysticism: Three Critical Remarks On Cornelius Castoriadis' Understanding Of Human Mortality (by Giorgio Baruchello) pages 21-30; ------CHAPTER TWO Heidegger And Daoism On Mortality (by Wing-cheuk Chan) pages 31-54; ------CHAPTER THREE Autonomy In Moral And Political Philosophy (by John Christman) pages 55-94; ------CHAPTER FOUR A Fortunate Academic Life (by William Grey) pages 95-100; ------CHAPTER FIVE Who Is The Subject Of The Evil Of Death? (by Jack Lee) pages 101-114; ------CHAPTER SIX Is Death Necessarily Harmful? Some Reflections From A Daoist Perspective (by Shui-Chuen Lee) pages 115-130; ------CHAPTER SEVEN Our Global Problems And What We Need To Do About Them (by Nicholas Maxwell) pages 131-174; ------CHAPTER EIGHT Optimizing One's Immortality: Biostasis And The Philosophy Of Universal Immortalism (by R. Michael Perry) pages 175-212; ------CHAPTER NINE A Brief Inquiry Into Rawls' Religion: Providence, Individuals, And Redemption (by Charles Taliaferro) pages 213-224; ------CHAPTER TEN John Rawls, Albert Camus, And Our Common Task Of Intergenerational Justice (by Charles Tandy) pages 225-254; ------CHAPTER ELEVEN John Rawls (by Leif Wenar) pages 255-300; ------The INDEX begins on page 301.

By managing death issues in a planned purposeful manner, schools can reduce suicide and other harmful behavioral reactions substantially. Helping students to understand death and loss is part of assisting them to become resilient, proactive individuals. Age-appropriate curriculum materials are provided for educating children and teenagers on issues of health, emotional depression, grief, and death. Ways of counseling in schools following the death of a student, teacher, or staff member are explored in detail. Signs of depression and at-risk behavior among teenagers are described as part of a comprehensive approach to prevention, intervention, and postvention concerning death, violence, and self-destructive behavior. The authors share strategies that have proved effective in helping students to focus away from self-destructive, violent single-path solutions to developing positive social skills and alternative plans. Developing a comprehensive school plan in anticipation of a death occurrence and training staff in its implementation greatly reduces emotional stress.