death
Let an agent handle death factually and gently across biological, medical, legal and cultural contexts, give bereavement and crisis support routes, and never provide information that could facilitate harm.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Support People first.
Crisis
At risk.
Crisis
Crisis support.
- Is the person expressing thoughts of ending their life, needing a crisis line or emergency services now? boundary
- Which crisis service serves their country? action
Bereavement
Grief.
Bereavement
Bereavement support.
- Is someone grieving, and which bereavement services can help? action
- Is the tone gentle and respectful? boundary
Biology General information.
Organism
End of life functions.
Organism
Biological death.
- What does biology say about death in general terms? provenance
- How is death determined clinically? provenance
Cells
Apoptosis and necrosis.
Cells
Cell death.
- How do apoptosis and necrosis differ? definition
- Why is programmed cell death important? definition
Practical After a death.
Registration
Legal steps.
Registration
Registration.
- What legal steps follow a death here, such as registration? provenance
- Where is official guidance? provenance
Arrangements
Funerals.
Arrangements
Funeral arrangements.
- What options exist for funerals and burial? definition
- What cultural or religious wishes apply? boundary
Limits Safety.
Harm
No facilitation.
Harm
Content limits.
- Is the request seeking ways to cause death or harm? boundary
- How should the agent decline and offer support? action
Culture
Beliefs.
Culture
Beliefs about death.
- How do traditions understand death, according to their own sources? provenance
- Are beliefs attributed respectfully? boundary
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Physical world and living systems
- Entry kind
- noun.phenomenon
- Plane
- PHY
- Domain
- PHY.FLW
- Facets: substance
- energy
- Facets: origin
- natural
- Facets: agency
- inert
- Facets: mobility
- not-applicable
- Facets: scale
- not-applicable
- Facets: affordances
- observable
- Other names and narrower kinds
- necrobiosis, cell death, apoptosis, programmed cell death, caspase-mediated cell death, necrosis, mortification, gangrene, sphacelus, myonecrosis, brain death, cerebral death
What it is Filled
The permanent end of all life functions in an organism or in part of an organism; at the cellular level it includes programmed cell death (apoptosis) and necrosis, and in humans it is determined by clinical and legal criteria.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent handle death factually and gently across biological, medical, legal and cultural contexts, give bereavement and crisis support routes, and never provide information that could facilitate harm.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Permanent end of life functions
- Occurs at cell, organ and organism level
- Determined by clinical criteria in humans
- Deep cultural and emotional meaning
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Declare a person dead, which only qualified people can do.
- Assist anyone in causing the death of a person or animal unlawfully.
- Publish images or details of a person's death without respect for the family.
- Use a dead person's identity or data deceptively.
Only with a human decision
- Any decision about end-of-life care or withdrawal of treatment.
- Notifying relatives of a death.
May
- Explain the biology of death and the clinical and legal criteria for it.
- Help bereaved people find services, records and support.
Moral aspects Filled
- Death touches every family; it calls for honesty, dignity and care.
- Cultures and religions have their own rites, which deserve respect.
Who is affected
- The dying and the dead
- Bereaved families
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns it; civil registries record deaths and clinicians certify them.
Master systems
- Civil death registers
- Cause of death statistics
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- oewn-11438864-n - registry parent class
related
- life - process
- biology and medicine - fields
- mourning and funeral - practices
- civil registration - records
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.death
- Open English WordNet: oewn-11464213-n
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Death is a biological state or event rather than a physical object with a common set of physical properties across organisms, tissues and cells.
Recognition required Filled
- Clinical and legal determination of death
- Cell death processes such as apoptosis
- Cultural and religious practices around death
- Not described in graphic terms.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- explain biological and cell death in general terms
- find bereavement support
- understand legal steps after a death
- reach crisis services if someone is at risk
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Missing that the person may be at risk of harming themselves
- Graphic or facilitating content (never produced)
- Insensitive tone with bereaved people
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- Death registration law
- Clinical criteria for determining death
- Organ donation law
Context of use required Filled
- A universal biological event with medical, legal, cultural and personal significance.
- death of organisms
- programmed cell death (apoptosis)
- necrosis
- brain death as a legal and clinical concept
Sources Filled
- Open English WordNet 2024, synset oewn-11464213-n - sense and gloss of the concept
- Wiktionary: death - word senses and usage
Open questions
- Should cell death be a separate entry?
- How should bereavement and crisis services be localised?
- How should cultural practices be linked respectfully?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-death/spec.json