Rethinking Mortality: Exploring the Boundaries between Life and Death

2013-14

Remarkable advances in resuscitation medicine—the science of bringing people back to life—have blurred the once clear demarcation between life and death. Led by physicians across the globe, these developments are creating a paradigm shift in our understanding of death, challenging the perception that it is an implacable, terminal moment with the realization that death is a dynamic, biological process that is capable of being reversed.

Today, people who have been pronounced “dead” are being brought back to life minutes to even hours after taking their last breath, with the possibility of leading healthy and normal lives. Moreover, many of these individuals, spanning all ages and backgrounds, are now reporting—in surprisingly vivid and similar accounts—their firsthand experience of what happened after their cardiac arrest, raising the unavoidable question of the continuity of consciousness beyond physical death.

In light of these striking developments, this four-part series, moderated by Steve Paulson, journalist and Executive Producer of Wisconsin Public Radio’s To The Best Of Our Knowledge, will bring together leading experts at the crossroads of emergency medicine and neuroscience, psychology and law, anthropology and philosophy. They will explore this new frontier at the intersection of life and death, and its potential implications for how we understand and approach our mortality from scientific, ethical, and spiritual perspectives.

  • Reversing Death: The Miracle of Modern Medicine

    • Steve Paulson Journalist and Executive Producer, TTBOOK
    • Lance B. Becker Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
    • Stephan A. Mayer Professor of Neurology, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
    • Sam Parnia Associate Professor of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center
    • Wednesday, October 9, 2013
    • 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    • The New York Academy of Sciences
      7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, 40th Floor
    • Watch Details

  • Prolonging Life: Legal, Ethical, and Social Dilemmas

    • Steve Paulson Journalist and Executive Producer, TTBOOK
    • Christopher P. Comfort Medical Director, Calvary Hospital
    • Barbara Coombs Lee President, Compassion & Choices
    • Sam Shemie Professor of Pediatrics, McGill University
    • Mildred Z. Solomon President and CEO of The Hastings Center
    • Tuesday, November 12, 2013
    • 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    • The New York Academy of Sciences
      7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, 40th Floor
    • Watch Details

  • Experiencing Death: An Insider’s Perspective

    • Steve Paulson Journalist and Executive Producer, TTBOOK
    • Peter Fenwick Neuropsychiatrist and Clinical Neurophysiologist
    • Mary C. Neal Founding Partner, Orthopedic Associates of Jackson Hole, Wyoming
    • Kevin Nelson Professor of Neurology, University of Kentucky
    • Sam Parnia Associate Professor of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center
    • Wednesday, December 11, 2013
    • 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    • The New York Academy of Sciences
      7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, 40th Floor
    • Watch Details

  • Confronting Mortality: Faith and Meaning across Cultures

    • Steve Paulson Journalist and Executive Producer, TTBOOK
    • Jeffrey J. Kripal Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Rice University
    • Allan Kellehear Professor of Sociology, Middlesex University
    • Lani Leary Psychotherapist and Author
    • Wednesday, February 5, 2014
    • 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    • The New York Academy of Sciences
      7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, 40th Floor
    • Watch Details

Annals

This volume brings sheds light on the emerging frontier at the intersection of life and death, with an emphasis on how we understand and approach our mortality from scientific, ethical, and even spiritual perspectives.

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