Editing Life (section)

=== Death ===

{{main|Death}}

[[File:Male Lion and Cub Chitwa South Africa Luca Galuzzi 2004.JPG|right|thumb|Animal corpses, like this [[African buffalo]], are recycled by the [[ecosystem]], providing energy and nutrients for living organisms.]]

Death is the termination of all vital functions or life processes in an organism or cell.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Definition of death |url=http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861602899/death.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091103065510/http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861602899/death.html |archive-date=3 November 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=define_death>{{cite web |title=Definition of death |website=Encyclopedia of Death and Dying |publisher=Advameg, Inc. |url=http://www.deathreference.com/Da-Em/Definitions-of-Death.html |access-date=25 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203141750/http://www.deathreference.com/Da-Em/Definitions-of-Death.html |archive-date=3 February 2007 }}</ref>
One of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life. Death would seem to refer to either the moment life ends, or when the state that follows life begins.<ref name=define_death/> However, determining when death has occurred is difficult, as cessation of life functions is often not simultaneous across organ systems.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Crossing Over: How Science Is Redefining Life and Death |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/04/dying-death-brain-dead-body-consciousness-science/ |author=Henig, Robin Marantz |author-link=Robin Marantz Henig |magazine=[[National Geographic]] |date=April 2016 |access-date=23 October 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101071129/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/04/dying-death-brain-dead-body-consciousness-science/ |archive-date=1 November 2017 }}</ref> Such determination, therefore, requires drawing conceptual lines between life and death. This is problematic because there is little consensus over how to define life. The nature of death has for millennia been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical inquiry. Many religions maintain faith in either a kind of [[afterlife]] or [[reincarnation]] for the [[soul]], or [[resurrection]] of the body at a later date.<ref>{{Cite web|title=How the Major Religions View the Afterlife|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/how-major-religions-view-afterlife|access-date=4 February 2022|website=Encyclopedia.com|archive-date=4 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204201436/https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/how-major-religions-view-afterlife|url-status=live}}</ref>