title: Reexamining death. The asymptotic model and a bounded zone definition.
abstract: The traditional Western understanding of life and death as a strict dichotomy is challenged by a more descriptively accurate model of life's progressive cessation. Dying can be defined by a bounded zone of residual states of life that fits better with moral intuition and more sensitively guides action toward the dying.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., USA.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Emanuel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003643:Death; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D028723:Personhood; D011788:Quality of Life; D012945:Social Values; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D035501:Uncertainty; D026712:Value of Life; D028761:Withholding Treatment