What we can learn from death rites of the past will help us treat the dead and grieving better today
Saints' relics, locks of hair, the laying of flowers: keeping the dead close took many forms in the past. We could learn from them today.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Death
Displaying 1 - 20 of 127 articles
Viewpoints: should euthanasia be available for people with existential suffering?
Imagine this situation: a person has no medical illness but wishes to end his or her life purely because he or she no longer wishes to live. Should they be eligible for euthanasia or assisted suicide?
Watching funerals streamed online offers a new way to deal with death
Online memorial services mean more can mourn.
People are going to court over dead family members’ Facebook pages – it’s time for post-mortem privacy
You need to start thinking about what will happen to your online data when you die.
Passed away, kicked the bucket, pushing up daisies – the many ways we don’t talk about death
We use euphemisms about death and dying to soften the blow of the real words, or because we feel awkward being direct. But this can lead to misunderstanding and confusion.
You may die sooner than we thought – but here’s why that might be a good thing
The health of our pensions can ebb and flow with mortality rates, and the latest data has delivered a shock.
How a spate of killings in Bahrain has raised suspicions of state brutality
More bloodshed lies ahead – but few are taking any notice.
How do you remember a rock god? The complicated legacy of Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry has died age 90, rightly remembered as the legend who shaped rock and roll. But his misdeeds can't be ignored in the rush to glorify an icon.
Hacksaw Ridge promised to champion pacifism – but the film is sadly just jingoistic
The Oscar-nominated film is pure Hollywood hokum and a lost opportunity.
Welcome to Australia, a land of creatures out to kill you… maybe
Australia's snakes, spiders and other venomous critters tend to strike fear in many people. But is Australia's reputation as a nation of deadly creatures deserved?
Taking a VR trip in Shaun Gladwell’s floating planetoid skull
An Australian virtual reality work premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week takes the viewer on a wild ride through space.
How to calculate the economic impact of grief
Searching for a sensitive route to the practical aftermath of tragedy.
One year on, we should remember David Bowie as both genius and flawed human
Amid the tribute concerts and outpourings of sadness on the anniversary of Bowie's death, we should be wary of mythologising him.
Nine weird and wonderful facts about death and funeral practices
Thankfully, defleshing bones has fallen out of fashion.
Will we ever be able to bring cryogenically frozen corpses back to life? A cryobiologist explains
Nanotechnology may one day help make cryonics possible.
Is someone reanimated from cryogenic freezing legally dead or alive? And other problems
The science of reanimating the dead from deep freeze is one thing. But even if possible, it poses serious social and legal questions.
Facebook’s accidental ‘death’ of users reminds us to plan for digital death
When Facebook accidentally listed millions of users as "dead" in an embarrassing glitch it was a reminder that everyone needs to plan for their own digital death.
Assisted Suicide: a musical that asks us to think critically about the portrayal of euthanasia
There's a problematic bias in the way that assisted suicide is portrayed in the media.
Questions you should ask yourself before getting cryogenically frozen
It's uncertain whether we'll ever be able to bring cryogenically frozen people back to life. Should we even try?
We have a right to die with dignity. The medical profession has a duty to assist
Proponents of assisted suicide, such as emeritus archbishop Desmond Tutu, argue that as people have the right to live with dignity, they also have the right to die with dignity.
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Deakin University
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Senior Lecturer, Music Industry, RMIT University
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Research Fellow, Coventry University
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Professor of Death Studies, University of Bath
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Senior Specialist in Intensive Care and Head of Clinical Unit in Ethics and Health Law, University of Newcastle
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Reader in Socio-Digital Interaction and EPSRC Post-Doctoral Cross-Disciplinary Research Fellow, University of Dundee
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Associate Professor of Medicine, Deakin University
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Senior lecturer, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast
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Emeritus professor, Flinders University
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Professor of Medicine, Monash University
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Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology
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Professor (Hon) at Monash University, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
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Director - Centre for Forensic Science, University of Western Australia
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Associate Professor in Internet Studies, Curtin University
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Associate Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Melbourne
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