Death

What do we define death as? Well of course, doctors may conclude that death is the lack of brain activity, completely brain dead. But, that takes it too literal. The brain dies, the body dies.
But, when does a person die? When do we really leave ourselves, our body left to become a shell? Is it really when we lose all brain activity? Is that the only time we lose ourselves?
No. Of course it isn't. A man is dead once he loses himself. Loses sight in what he is, or what he should do. A man who has lost touch with his ethics, to become a monster, is dead.
How many times can one look into the eyes of a man and say he is dead, to see the life be pulled from their existence. I say, I see monsters who have lost themselves with this same look. Could this not be called death? Does a man who has committed unspeakable acts of cruelty deserve the label of living? Or does he exist only as a shell?
A man who has lost all family, is not known to be alive, does he exist? To call him living would be unprovable. The government has record of his life, but that is only to seize him if his sanity races from him and he commits crimes. They, too, have no proof that the man is alive. The man at a grocery store ringing his items up probably takes no time to lift his eye to him, to acknowledge his existince. The line is possibly crossed at this point, where one can not account for your livelihood, or care for it. A man is not to be looked down upon if this is his situation, but if his existence is so far out of reach for others, that not one can count for his existence, is it fair to count him among the living? Maybe, but maybe not.
What of the individual who spends his time locked away from reality, no outreach for the world. Many may define living as "getting out there and doing stuff!" So, a man who does not, not by a disability, but by choice, get out may be defined as dead as well. But, does this loss of reality, a loss of a real world count as death? If not, what may count as death? Is it as simple as losing all brain activity?

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