Medically Defined Death

4 Medically Defined Death Birthdays and DeathdaysEveryone knows their birthday, and most people celebrate it each year with friends and family, receiving gifts and having a party, but even though we also pass our future deathday each year, we rarely think about it.It's strange to me that a date that will come to be associated with us forever after our death-it will be written on our tombstone and in our obituary and will come to be associated with all memories of us-is unknown and even insignificant to us while we are alive.What would you do if you knew ahead of time what day you would die?Would you throw a cheeky celebration each year and ask friends to come and mourn the passing of time, or would you hole up in a corner of your room, worrying that this year might actually be the last year to celebrate your deathday?Similarly, we often discuss how we are augmented in life, but I have never read about the ways we are augmented in death.Yet augmentation is a significant part of the dying process now-particularly if we die in hospitals, surrounded by a multitude of technologies expected to extend and expand our lives.Those who are augmented in life will most likely also be augmented in dying, but even people who have never used any kind of assistive-living device are highly likely to rely on some form of mechanized augmentation in the dying process if they die in a hospital.Approximately one-third of all Americans die in hospitals, and that number increases to nearly 70 percent if one adds nursing homes and assisted-care facilities to hospitals. 1 Globally, this number is not much different, with approximately 54 percent of all people around the world taking their last breath in a hospital.2 This is significant because the dying process in a hospital can be considered an augmented death.