This volume brings together studies on the social, cultural, legal, media, religious, ethical, and medical aspects of the tension between existence and non-existence. Previously clear boundaries lose their contours. Traditional knowledge systems can no longer adequately represent this increase in ambiguity and must therefore make way for new interpretive patterns. Social scientific analysis shows that who, when, where, how, and why someone is considered dead depends on the contexts in which the diagnosis is made. What constitutes the end of life, what accompanies it, what it triggers, and how it can be observed can no longer be objectively determined in a differentiated world. Nevertheless, attempts to assert an unassailable reality in this regard are still widespread. They are based on hegemonic knowledge systems.