This book brings together the relevant interdisciplinary and method elements needed to form a conceptual framework that is both pragmatic and rigorous. By using the best and often the latest, work in thanatology, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, physics, philosophy and ethics, it develops a framework for understanding both what death is ¿ which requires a great deal of time spent developing definitions of the various types of identity-in-the-moment and identity-over-time ¿ and the values involved in death. This pragmatic framework answers questions about why death is a form of loss; why we experience the emotional reactions, feelings and desires that we do; which of these reactions, feelings and desires are justified and which are not; if we can survive death and how; whether our deaths can harm us; and why and how we should prepare for death. Thanks to the pragmatic framework employed, the answers to the various questions are more likely to be accurate and acceptable than those with less rigorous scholarly underpinnings or which deal with utopian worlds.

A Pragmatic Method.- A Pragmatic Framework of Values and Principles: The Beginning.- Defining and Valuing Properties and Individuals.- What harm does death do to the decedent?.- How should we feel about our own death?.- How should we feel about another's death?.- Is there a duty to die?.- A duty to suicide.