'The Rigid Embrace of the Narrow House': Premature Burial &amp; The Signs of Death

Alexander, Marc

doi:10.2307/3560926

Cited by 26 publications

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“…This diagnosis was based, moreover, on a lack of brain function rather than on the condition of the heart and lungs as had been the case since the 19th century. Prior to that time many experts claimed that putrefaction was the only reliable sign of death (Alexander 1980).…”

Section: Locating the Moment Of Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Death in Technological Time: Locating the End of Meaningful Life

Lock¹

1996

Med Anthropol Q

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This article demonstrates how debate about technologically manipulated death is elaborated in radically different forms in the scientifically sophisticated spaces of Japan and North America. Using recent historical materials and contemporary medical, philosophical, and media publications, I argue that the institutionalization and legitimization of "brain death" as the end of life in North America have been justified by a dominant discourse in which it is asserted that if certain measurable criteria are fulfilled, an individual can be declared scientifically dead. In Japan, by contrast, death is interpreted primarily as a social and not an individual event, and efforts to scientifically define the end of life as a measurable point in time are rejected outright by the majority, including many clinicians. The margins between nature and culture are debated in both cultural spaces, but assigned different moral status in the respective dominant discourse.

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Section: Locating the Moment Of Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Death in Technological Time: Locating the End of Meaningful Life

Lock¹

1996

Med Anthropol Q

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“…For example, in 1740, in order to prevent mistaken diagnosis, Jean-Jacques Winslow recommended that putrefaction was the only sure sign of death. 1 Others argued that this sign was insufficient, because gangrene could be mistaken for putrefaction. 1 A diagnosis of death could take many hours.…”

Section: Historical Context Of Cardiac Death Determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 Others argued that this sign was insufficient, because gangrene could be mistaken for putrefaction. 1 A diagnosis of death could take many hours. Before modern clinical instrumentation existed, the signs which were used to diagnose death included persistent unresponsiveness; rigor mortis, which usually occurs 2 to 4 hours after death; algor mortis, a fall in temperature after death; and livor mortis, skin discoloration occurring about 8 hours after death.…”

Section: Historical Context Of Cardiac Death Determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Death Watch: Certifying Death Using Cardiac Criteria

DeVita

2001

Prog Transpl

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In the past, inadequate diagnostic instruments sometimes led to incorrect diagnoses of death, so careful and prolonged observation--the "death watch"--was required. Diagnostic instruments are now accurate and determining the presence or absence of circulation and cerebral function is easy in virtually all cases. Still, ambiguity and controversy in diagnosing death persists because the current criteria, irreversible cessation of cardiac or whole brain function, are ambiguous. Recent reintroduction of non-heart-beating organ donation has highlighted the controversy. Data on the ability to achieve restoration of spontaneous circulation are quite consistent, but they support several different sets of reasonable death criteria. This article concludes with a rejection of a fixed notion of "irreversibility" because it does not conform to current practice, is potentially deleterious to social events at the time of death, and the reversibility of cardiopulmonary arrest is dependent on available means of resuscitation. Finally, the time required to ensure irreversible cessation of cardiac function despite potential intervention is too broad to be clinically applicable and is unreasonable. Diagnosis of death should be based on the context in which it occurs because the medical means available determine what is irreversible.

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“…The fear of being buried alive runs so deep in human history that one medical historian considers it “our most primal fear” (Bondeson). Studies of the history of premature burial have approached the topic from the perspective of European medical or American literary history, and explore what the stories reveal about the difficulty of defining the moment of death; popular ambivalence toward the medical profession; the fear of death and what, if anything, it leads to; the influence of Romantic and Gothic literary traditions; Edgar Allen Poe's undiagnosed seizure disorder; Emily Dickinson's fear of consciousness in death; and the Victorian era's domestication and sentimentalization of death (Alexander 25–31; Behlmer 206–35; Colman; Davies; Gannal; Josat; Jentzen; Laderman; Pernick 17–74; Peron‐Autret; Powner, 1219–23; Roach; Sachs; Snart; Whitstine 65–78; Wojcicka 176–86; Bazil 740–43; Calo). What these studies do not do, however, is examine the stories of premature burial in their social context.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Buried Alive? Fear of Failure in Antebellum America

Lawes¹

2014

J of American Culture

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'The Rigid Embrace of the Narrow House': Premature Burial & The Signs of Death

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Death in Technological Time: Locating the End of Meaningful Life

Death in Technological Time: Locating the End of Meaningful Life

The Death Watch: Certifying Death Using Cardiac Criteria

Buried Alive? Fear of Failure in Antebellum America

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