Moral Death: Preliminary Considerations
于Exploring Issues of Care, Dying and the End of LifeSearch for other papers by Lloyd Steffen in
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Clinical definitions of death, symbolized by whole brain death, have been countered by psychological-social definitions tied to partial brain (neocortical) death, but missing in the discussions of death is the non-biological idea of ‘moral death.’ This chapter will discuss three features of moral death: the role of decision-making in determining death; questions of duty and obligation; and continued self-other relationships of the living to the dead. Moral death provides a conceptual context for understanding relationship with the dead, including those who for various reasons never come to ‘accept’ the death of a loved one. Moral death indicates loss of relationship, and resistance to such loss is well illustrated when religion recreates the relational context with the dead and prevents the realization of moral death.