Care of the Dying Child and the Family

Death is a complex concept made up of the following sub-concepts: (a) universality, all living things die; (b) inevitability, death is unavoidable; (c) unpredictability, it is unknown when one will die; (d) irre-versibility, death is final, you cannot come back to life; (c) non-functionality, all life-defining capabilities cease; (d) causality, there are external (e.g., car accident) and internal (e.g., illness) causes of death; (e) noncorporeal continuation, there is some form of personal continuation after the physical death of the body (e.g., ascension of soul to heaven, reincarnation, legacy) (Schoen et al. 2004; Slaughter 2005; Speece and Brent 1996). Understanding death is a process that begins in childhood.