Death marks that moment in life when your physical body stops working to survive. You breathe your last breath. Your heart stops beating. Your brain stops. Other vital organs, including your kidneys and liver, stop. All your body systems powered by these organs shut down, too, so that they’re no longer capable of carrying on the ongoing processes understood as, simply, living.
Death itself is a process. Thinking of death in this way — as a series of events, dying — makes it easier to understand the changes your body goes through to transition from life to death. From your first breath to your last, your existence depends on processes your body sets into motion. Dying is the final essential process your body carries out for you.