While death represents the end for many, science today shows that it accompanies life from its inception, through all its stages. Programmed cell death, or what is known as apoptosis, is present from the embryonic stage, forming our organs, stimulating the menstrual cycle, renewing our tissues, and protecting the body from uncontrolled cell proliferation. But when this death is disturbed, it becomes a source or contributing factor to many diseases, from neurodegenerative disorders to cancer, including AIDS.Drawing on the latest data, Abdel Awashriya presents biological, historical and philosophical research in which the life sciences reconsider our understanding of death. Death is no longer opposed to life, but has become an integral part of it.
From the individual cell to society, death illuminates symbolic, social, cultural and political dimensions. The dualism of life and death as we know it proves too simplistic. There is not one death, but many deaths, gently teaching us, like falling leaves in autumn, how to look at life.
