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Article: Death and Dying
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Aging
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DEATH AND DYING
Dying and death are profound aspects of the human experience. Social science research documents the fact that defining someone as "dying" is a social process. Although critical medical conditions
certainly have a physiological basis, disease states are given significance through interpretation (Muller and Koenig). Perceptions that dying has begun and the meanings associated with those perceptions are contingent on a range of such social and cultural factors as the state of biological knowledge, the value of prolonging life or accepting finitude, the relative roles of religion, science, and medicine in creating meaning in everyday life, and personal familiarity with ...