Deck 3: Denial or Adaptation: The Death System

Question 1

It has been suggested that ethical guidelines for studying remains include all of the following EXCEPT that:

A) research should be conducted in consultation with relevant people such as living relatives of the deceased
B) researchers should maintain legal rights to the remains they discover following consultation with relevant people and organizations
C) research should conform to all applicable state, federal, and international regulations regarding treatment of the dead
D) researchers should make a case that the deceased individual would have agreed to testing for that purpose.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The Tuskegee Study is associated with all of the below EXCEPT:

A) African-American males
B) participants being lied to (lack of informed consent) for over 40 years
C) participants receiving curative treatment for syphilis
D) distrust among African-American community towards government and medical programs.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT related to the reduction of vultures in India?

A) reduced death anxiety because there is no longer this reminder of mortality
B) increased risk of tuberculosis and anthrax
C) interference with Tibetan Buddhist "sky burial"
D) intensified concern about pesticide effects.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

People who participated in the "world without death" research would agree with all of the following EXCEPT that:

A) birth control would be regulated
B) overcrowding would be a major problem
C) society would become very liberal and quick to change
D) several primary industries would change dramatically.

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT true of the Day of the Dead observances in Mexican culture?

A) The tradition comes from the Aztec peoples.
B) The mood in public is somber and restrained.
C) Most families conduct their own rituals in addition to the public observances.
D) The tradition is shaped by Roman Catholic beliefs and practices.

Question 6

December 29 is one of the "times" in the United States' death system because it is remembered as the day:

A) that World War I ended
B) the Sioux were massacred by cavalry at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890
C) that the defenders of the Alamo were killed in battle
D) of Custer's last stand.

Question 7

Which of the following is a function of the death system?

A) Warnings and predictions
B) Killing
C) Social consolidation after death
D) All of the above

Question 8

Examples of objects of the death system include all of the following EXCEPT:

A) a noose
B) a death certificate
C) slow, solemn music intoned on an organ
D) an electric chair.

Question 9

Floodwaters churned through the cemetery in Hardin, Missouri, during the devastating floods of 1993. In trying to recover from the effects of the flood, the community:

A) could not invest their limited energy to resources regarding the cemetery problem
B) asked a contractor to haul the bodies away for public health reasons
C) invested intensive effort into identifying the corpses and returning them to their designated burial places
D) feared contact with the corpses and avoided dealing with them as long as possible.

Question 10

Consistent with the Amish philosophy of life and death:

A) people who are near death are placed in a special building to avoid contaminating others
B) elaborate funerals are held
C) the coffin is placed in the house, and the funeral service is held in the house or barn
D) there is a strong taboo against talking about death.

Question 11

Social consolidation after 9/11 World Trade Center attack was weakened by:

A) lack of public and media support for family survivors
B) delays in providing economic benefits for survivors
C) rival proposals for rebuilding the World Trade Center
D) fear of additional attacks.

Question 12

Which function of the death system includes the challenges posed to the individual and the group by the loss of a member?

A) warnings and predictions
B) preventing death
C) social consolidation
D) disposing of the dead

Question 13

______ is the most obvious example of a society's death-system function of sanctioned killing.

A) Prison
B) Social death
C) War
D) The death penalty

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a Supreme Court decision, made between 1977 and 2005, regarding the death penalty?

A) The death penalty can be applied to juvenile offenders.
B) Mentally retarded criminals should not be executed.
C) The death penalty is excessive punishment for the rape of adult women.
D) The jury, rather than the judge, must make a finding that justifies the death penalty rather than a lesser punishment.

Question 15

In the book Utopia, written in 1516, Thomas More asserted that in an ideal society:

A) there would be no war
B) war would be essential, but would be done in a thoughtful and cost-effective way
C) there would be no executions
D) the state would not use deadly force under any circumstances.

Question 16

Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein agreed that ______ was the greatest problem facing humanity.

A) greed
B) man's aggressive instinct
C) man's propensity for violence
D) both b and c.

Question 17

Through the centuries, ______ has been the root cause of the most relentless and pitiless slaughter of human beings.

A) power
B) cultural identity
C) greed
D) religion.

Question 18

Which of the following is TRUE about Hurricane Katrina in 2005?

A) Residents of low-income areas were the first to be evacuated
B) The levees protecting New Orleans reportedly collapsed under sustained winds of up to 155 miles per hour.
C) Approximately 50 percent of New Orleans was under water.
D) It was the most unexpected natural disaster in U.S. history with death estimates between 1,200 and 1,800 deaths.

Question 19

______ is the mode of dying that most often led to images of death as divine punishment for human vanity and pride.

A) The Black Death
B) Cancer
C) Persistent vegetative state
D) Tuberculosis

Question 20

Avoidance of the dying person was intensified through the nineteenth and early twentieth century because of fears associated with the suffering and contagious danger of people with:

A) meningitis
B) cancer
C) syphilis
D) tuberculosis.

Question 21

The death system in the U.S., which used to focus on avoiding the topic of death, began to change:

A) during the religious revivals of the early 1900s
B) after the end of World War II
C) during the cultural revolution of the 1960s
D) during the New Age Movement of the 1980s.

Question 22

The estimated number of years remaining in a person's life at a particular time is known as:

A) life expectancy
B) longevity
C) morbidity
D) extensivity.

Question 23

All of the following are general categories for causes of death EXCEPT:

A) disease
B) degenerative biological conditions
C) morbidity
D) socio-environmental factors.

Question 24

Life expectancy is longest at birth in ______ and shortest in ______.

A) Europe; Asia
B) North America; Africa
C) Europe; Latin America
D) North America; Latin America.

Question 25

Females have a higher life expectancy than males in:

A) Africa
B) Asia
C) Europe
D) all of the above.

Question 26

For individuals between 25 and 44 years of age, ______ and ______ are among the highest death risks.

A) heart disease; suicide
B) accidents; liver disease
C) accidents; suicide
D) COPD; accidents

Question 27

People in some developing regions of the world remain highly vulnerable to epidemics for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

A) malnutrition
B) contaminated food
C) unsafe water
D) a lower resistance to a variety of illnesses.

Question 28

Sacrifice is a major example of several functions coming together with both death and life as the intended outcomes.

Question 29

Michael Jackson's estate was in debt until after his sudden death.

Question 30

For centuries in India vultures have been relied upon to strip the corpses of humans and animals.

Question 31

The death system is made up of people, places, times, objects, and symbols.

Question 32

Although people today tend to think of a hospital as much more than just a place to die, earlier in our history people felt that being sent to the hospital by the doctor meant that death was close.

Question 33

The Day of the Dead in Mexico is acknowledged with somber religious services and restrained public behavior.

Question 34

When Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother died at 101 years old, soldiers of the Royal Horse Artillery rode six black horses that were pulling a gun carriage that bore the coffin.

Question 35

Poor women in the U.S. are less likely to be diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.

Question 36

The measure of the proportion of people who have died within a particular time period to the number of people in the population is known as the morbidity rate.

Question 37

All physicians are required to take a "never-say-die" orientation that keeps the focus of their treatment on curing the patient regardless of the circumstances.

Question 38

Amish funeral services are held in the community church.

Question 39

One of the most disturbing facets of human sacrifice has been one of the more common in history: the ritual murder of children.

Question 40

Both the Black Death and syphilis are signified by agony and disfiguration.

Question 41

The ritual murder of children in human sacrifice occurred in all cultures except Judeo-Christian societies.

Question 42

The tsunami of 2004 caused slow agonizing deaths.

Question 43

Most survivors of the tsunami of 2004 viewed the event as divine punishment for sin and other failings.

Question 44

The residents of New Orleans excelled in effective social consolidation following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Question 45

Whereas the death system used to be organized around death at an early age due to contagious diseases and infections, today's focus is on current lifestyle choices (such as smoking) and elderly conditions.

Question 46

The terms morbidity and mortality rates are used interchangeably.

Question 47

Heart disease has been the leading cause of death among Americans since 1940.

Question 48

The death penalty is the most obvious example of the death system function of sanctioned killing.

Question 49

Life expectancy is the estimated number of years at the end of a person's life.

Question 50

Mortality rate is also known as death rate per 500,000 individuals over a five-year period.

Question 51

More men die due to lung cancer each year than to prostate cancer.

Question 52

Significant deaths due to respiratory infections are a thing of the past due to the advent of antibiotics.

Question 53

What is the definition of the terms

-Age-standardized mortality rate

Question 54

What is the definition of the terms

-Capital punishment

Question 55

What is the definition of the terms

-Cardiovascular resuscitation (CPR)

Question 56

What is the definition of the terms

-Cerebrovascular accident (CVA)

Question 57

What is the definition of the terms

-Cohort

Question 58

What is the definition of the terms

-COPD

Question 59

What is the definition of the terms

-Crude death rate (CDR)

Question 60

What is the definition of the terms

-Life expectancy

Question 61

What is the definition of the terms

-Death system

Question 62

What is the definition of the terms

-Excess death rate

Question 63

What is the definition of the terms

-Longevity

Question 64

What is the definition of the terms

-Microbial agents

Question 65

What is the definition of the terms

-Morbidity

Question 66

What is the definition of the terms

-Mortality

Question 67

What is the definition of the terms

-Mortality rate

Question 68

What is the definition of the terms

-Pathologists

Question 69

What is the definition of the terms

-Thanatology

Question 70

What is the definition of the terms

-Tsunami

Question 71

What is the definition of the terms

-Tuskegee

Question 72

Describe any three of the general consequences of the "world without death" thought experiment.

Question 73

Name five careers or industries that are directly connected with the death system. Next, contrast them with five careers or industries that are indirectly connected with the death system.

Question 74

Give three general examples of places associated with the death system.

Question 75

Discuss public health concerns regarding the future effectiveness of antibiotics.

Question 76

Describe the five components of the death system, emphasizing the ways in which the components overlap and influence each other.

Question 77

Choose any one of the seven functions of the death system to describe and explain in terms of the related ethical dilemmas or questions faced by our society.

Question 78

Describe and give examples of the role of human sacrifice in ancient civilizations.

Question 79

Compare and contrast the seven functions of the death system as they evolved during the tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina of 2005.