Legally Dead

• Skulls in Prague's Kutna Hora (bone church)
  
  In the United States, death is defined by the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA). The UDDA was developed in 1981 and is used as a model by the majority of the 50 states to determine whether or not a person is legally dead. According to the UDDA, a person is dead if one of two criteria can be verified: irreversible termination of all circulatory and respiratory functions or irreversible termination of brain functions, including brain stem.
  
  Critics of the UDDA argue that death does not occur until someone has been declared brain dead, making the circulatory/respiratory definition of death irrelevant. Defenders of the UDDA say the criteria are intentionally vague to allow for people's varying conceptions of what it means to die. The current UDDA allows for organ donation if the heart stops beating. If the circulatory/respiratory component were removed from the UDDA, organ donation would become more limited.
  
  

Cultural Beliefs

• Some people believe death occurs when the spirit leaves the physical body. The Cree people, an indigenous people of North America, held traditional ceremonies called the Wake and Round Dance when someone died. The ceremonies were intended to bring the body back to Mother Earth and send the spirit on its way. The Cree people say the presence of the Northern Lights occurs when the spirits are dancing, supporting their belief that death only indicates a loss of the physical body.
  The Christian religion operates under the assumption that there is a place called heaven, where souls go when someone dies. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, heaven is the place where God lives, and "with God in heaven are likewise the souls of the just." So here, too, dying is the point at which the soul leaves the body and moves on to another place.
  
  

Letting Go

• As a person approaches death, she may talk of "letting go." The Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) explains that death is another major event in life when an individual senses a time for change. By accepting this change, the person is letting go. The FCA says refusing to let go can extend the process of dying, but ultimately cannot stop it from happening. A person who is able to "let go" is not necessarily one who wants to die. Rather, she is someone who has come to terms with her inevitable death. People do not have to let go to die, but the two events often happen sequentially.