Human Persons are Oriented

Toward their Impending Death

How are we going to know the
purpose and meaning of life?
• From agricultural life of the early society to
the most complex and diverse impact of
globalization, the present era is indeed full of
changes.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
• Legal-Medical Definition
– Traditional definition of death; simply equated to the
stopping of heartbeat and breathing.
• Have to consider:
– 1. The advent of life extending machines and
– 2. Practice of organ transplant
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
– The Journal of the American Medical Association on
August 1968
• Death as no longer just the absence of heartbeat and
breathing.
• A patient who is breathing and whose heart is functioning
through medical machines, may no longer have any brain
activity—is already DEAD!
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– Irreversible coma as a new criterion for death;

• 1. Improvements in resuscitative and supportive measures
have led to increase efforts to save those who desperately
injured
• 2. Obsolete criteria for the definition of death can lead to
controversy in obtaining organs for transplantation.
Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

• Consequently, the redefinition

creates more issues and
difficulties to see who is really
dead.
• Diagnosis for determining
brain death is questioned
• May lead also to abuse of
authority, due to unclear
definition of death
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– Republic Act 7170 or Organ Donation Act of 1991 of

Section 2 paragraph (j):
• DEATH – the irreversible cessation of circulatory and
respiratory functions or the irreversible cessation of all
functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem. A
person shall be medically and legally dead if;
– In the opinion of attending physician, based on the acceptable
standard of medical practice
– In the opinion of the consulting physician, concurred in by the
attending physician…
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– Two important points;

• 1. Only physicians can declare if someone is already dead
• 2. The physician must have done everything to preserve
the life of the patient—consistent to the physicians’
professional oath.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
• Religious Definition
– Some groups objected and criticized the very
rational-based foundation of human life.
– Some recognized the authority and independence
of medical authorities.
• Pope John Paul II in his speech to the 18th International
Congress on Organ Transplantation Society in August
2000.
– “with regard to parameters used today for ascertaining
death—whether the encephalic signs or to the more traditional
cardio-respiratory signs—the Church does not make technical
decisions”.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– The differences of perspectives, beliefs, and practices

among religions are extensive that prevents us from
establishing single definition of death.
– For most, DEATH is based on the concept of an
afterlife—from earthly life to the life after death.
• What happen to the soul after life will vary from religion to
religion.
– That the soul will be directed to a place that is proportionate to
its moral status during earthly life.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
• Christianity believes in the
existence of heaven, hell, and
purgatory
• Protestant Christianity and
Judaism do not subscribe to the
idea of purgatory
• Indian religions; Buddhism,
Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism soul
undergoes rebirth—
reincarnation.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– The afterlife is ultimately based on rewards and

punishments—good life = HEAVEN or reincarnate
to a higher status while bad life = hell or lower
status
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

• Existential Definition
– Existentialism criticized the definition of death
that focused on the afterlife.
• For them, it takes away the focus of the person to what
is actual and concrete—to human existence.
– People tend to ignore the present and always do the
things in reference to the future—the afterlife.
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death
– DEATH – is the transition from being to non-being,
meaning this is the termination of all the
possibilities that we have as temporal beings.
• “to be—to exist” – to have possibilities
• “not to be—not to exist” – to lose all the possibilities
– Afterlife?
• Not a concern for them, because its existence is not
concrete!
– Cannot empirically validate the existence of heaven, hell or
even the reincarnation of the soul—will leads us only to
anxiety!
 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

– For existentialist, face the real possibility of non-

being—the possibility that when we die,
everything is over, that is, that we simply cease to
be; that we are no longer—this is the real source
of death’s anxiety not anything else!
– Thus, knowing and facing the possibility of non-
being redirects us to being—to what is actual,
concrete, and present—the HERE and NOW!
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• Why is killing is wrong?
• What makes killing wrong?
• Are all killings wrong?

– When death is induced, we call it KILLING!

• There is an undeniable value in human life that makes
its negation a central issue in the realm of ethics.
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• SUICIDE – is generally considered a morally
impermissible act.
– Three Arguments;
• 1. Thou shalt not kill – God gave us life and He intends it
to be preserved.
• 2. Arguments from natural law – our natural disposition
is self-preservation.
• 3. Socio-political Arguments – we have obligations to
other persons.
 Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• EUTHANASIA OR “EASY DEATH” – practice of
killing someone who is very sick or very badly
injured to badly injured to prevent further
suffering.
– Three arguments why it is wrong:
• 1. Medical legal argument – contradicts the role of the
physicians
• 2. Theological argument – it is God who gave us life, and it
is only God who can take it away.
• 3. Psychological argument – patient may feel guilty in
considering himself a burden to his family and others
taking care of him/her.
 Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
• ABORTION – acts intends to bring about the
death of a fetus for the sake of the woman who
caries it.
– Pro-abortion argument – they do not recognize the
fetus, or the embryo, as constituting a human
person who deserves the right to life.
– Vatican – it is termination of life, “The right to life is
no less to be respected in the small infant just born
than in the mature person.”
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue
– Cases of SUICIDE, EUTHANASIA, and ABORTION
are all put into question because they share
something which undermines the value of life—
that is, an UNNATURAL DEATH.
– Remember that we consider death as a FACT of life, but we
tend to react when this fact of life does not happen the
natural way.
• The wrongness of killing mainly comes from depriving
someone future.
– We therefore, condemn killing because it kills all the
possibilities of the human person—suicide, euthanasia,
abortion are cases which deprive someone of a future good
life.
 Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Existentialism
– Focuses on what death can offer to life.
1. Otherworldly realm is not the focal point of philosophy-
– We live in a world where we are immersed with actual concrete
realities—everything is actual.
2. The concern for human finitude and temporality is intensified-
– We are driven to focus on the possibilities of a finite and temporal
being.
3. Addressing anxiety as one of the concerns of any human
person
– A. anxious over the idea of our non-existence
– B. that we are free to define who we are—no define essence who we
are.
 Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Otherworld
– Friedrich Nietzsche – persuade people to abandon
any idea of a world which is not this world
• Any form of otherworldly realm is nothing but a fiction and
distraction from human affairs.
• Claims that the concept of an afterlife in the otherworld
serves to comfort those who are weak and suffering this
world—makes them accepts their lowly condition here in
return of better life after death.
• Meaning of Life (Where Will This Lead To?)
• Friedrich Nietzsche
– In his book, The Birth of Tragedy, analyzed the art of
Athenian tragedy as the product of the Greeks’ deep and
non-evasive thinking about the meaning of life in the face of
extreme vulnerability.
– Realizing one’s “higher self” therefore means fulfilling one’s
loftiest vision, noblest ideal.
– The individual has to liberate himself from environmental
influences that are false to one’s essential beings, for the
“unfree man” is a “disgrace to nature”.
Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Soren Kierkegaard – criticized Christianity for
reducing faith into philosophy
– Disapproved of the reduction of matters of faith
into matters of reason.
Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Anxiety
– People consider DEATH as the
root of anxiety.
– Paul Tillich – claims that
“anxiety is the existential
awareness of non-
being…means that it is not the
abstract knowledge of non-
being which produces anxiety
but the awareness that non-
being is a part of one’s own
being.”
Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Martin Heidegger – claims that “Being-
toward-death is essentially anxiety”
– That the anxiety of death brings is NOT equated to
our fear of dying.
• Fear has a specific object—may refer to the manner by
which one dies
– Example: afraid of dying by drowning, or by a disease
• Anxiety does not have specific object—comes from
the awareness of my own non-being.
– Example: Think of your own death—as soon as we come to
be, it is already possible for us not to be..
Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Two ways of facing the anxiety brought about by death
1. Face it
2. Accept it – a result of what he call idle talk: kind
of talk which the masses conduct
and it has a character of triviality.

• DEATH is a possibility that happens

– Possibility – humanity gets projected ahead of itself.
Humanity constructs the instrumental world on the basis
of the person’s concerns.
• DEATH is non-transferable. It is not accidental, nor
should be analyzed.
 Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Meaning of Life in Death
– The recognition of death
as our possibility help us
realize the importance
and value of our life.
• Seldom we think of the
possibility of our death—
seldom we realize the
good things in our lives. -
Heidegger-
Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Again, Nietzsche pointed out, the otherworld
strongly influences the lowly and the weak to give up
and hope for the better life in the world—invites us
to be living dead.
– They are here on earth, but they do not live in it
because their attention is in some other world.
Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• Kierkegaard pointed out how people treat the
elements of otherworld as if everything is a
matter of knowing.
– Everything is just a matter of faith!
Lesson 3: Death as an Existential Issue
• DEATH reminds us to LIVE—to see the value of
what we have and of what we are.
 Final Performance Task
• You have graduated from Senior High School
already and now suffering an incurable sickness
(you are about to die) (situation) and, now as a
sick patient/person (role) wanting to share to
your parents and friends (audience) your life
experiences from given life choices. To be able to
share your experience of life you chose (goal),
you are required to prepare a EULOGY (product)
stating on why did you choose the way of life you
lived. You will be graded based on the
comprehensiveness (holistic), logic (analytic),
depth of insight (reflection), and manner of
presentation (standards).
 Criteria Exemplar Satisfactory Developing Beginning
(20 pts) (15 pts) (10 pts) (5 pts)
Comprehe Experiences cover Experiences cover Experiences cover Experiences do not
nsiveness more than all the all course topics. some course cover any course
course topics. topics. topic.
Logic Insights are Insights are validly Insights are Insights are not
derived from well- derived from invalidly derived derived from any
established premises. from premises. premise.
premises.
Depth of Choice of life is Choice of life is Choice of life is Choice of life is
Insight based on life’s based on reasons based on reasons based on
fundamental intrinsic to the extrinsic to the accidental reasons.
meaning. course. course.
Manner of Letter is Letter is Letter has Letter is
presentatio grammatically grammatically grammatical grammatically
n correct and fluent. correct. problems. poor.