# After "dying", how long until I'm 100% dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788 "2016-01-21T16:44:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/22 "2016-01-22T00:02:27Z")
After a few hundereed year if someone found any DNA belonging to you it is possible that you could be cloned so you can never be dead. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/23 "2016-01-22T00:42:51Z")
> [@Nansbread1](#): > > After a few hundereed year if someone found any DNA belonging to you it is possible that you could be cloned so you can never be dead. As your cells weren’t alive and multiplying in the mean time, you could as well claim to have been dead, though. (Think of the tax deductions!) HeLa cells have been alive all the time since the 50’s though, and probably will be for some time. So does this mean that Henrietta Lacks is not dead yet? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/24 "2016-01-22T00:52:02Z")
You are not your DNA, or even your cells. Those provide the instructions and comprise they physical instantiation of you, but from any practical sense, you are the continuity of memories and self-awareness that forms your basic personality and relationships with people you know. This is why we widely recognize “brain death” (e.g. irreversible damage and loss of cognitive function) as being equivalent to the death of a person as a sentient entity. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/25 "2016-01-22T01:14:43Z")
I’ve heard that your hair and nails keep growing even after death. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/26 "2016-01-22T01:23:26Z")
Only in [Vincent Price movies](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053363/). In reality, it is [an easily debunked urban legend](http://www.snopes.com/science/nailgrow.asp). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/27 "2016-01-22T01:30:35Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > You are not your DNA, or even your cells. Those provide the instructions and comprise they physical instantiation of you, but from any practical sense, you are the continuity of memories and self-awareness that forms your basic personality and relationships with people you know. This is why we widely recognize “brain death” (e.g. irreversible damage and loss of cognitive function) as being equivalent to the death of a person as a sentient entity. > > Stranger While perfectly true, this is not what the OP asked: > [@](#): > > After “dying”, how long until I’m 100% dead? > As in, all cellular respiration has stopped? Every one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/28 "2016-01-22T07:55:20Z")
If you’re not dead, you can’t ride [on the cart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs). ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/29 "2016-01-22T11:09:14Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Would it be fair to narrow down the question to: after the heart has stopped, which human cell (not counting gut bacteria, etc) lives longest, and how long is that? This overlooks the possibility of new cells being produced after the heart has stopped. (I can’t imagine that failure of the heart would cause all cellular meiosis and mitosis elsewhere in the body to _instantly_ cease.) ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788/30 "2016-01-22T11:33:51Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I’ve heard that your hair and nails keep growing even after death. That’s actually a myth. It can appear that way because as the skin becomes desiccated, it retracts a bit and so reveals more of the hair and nails that were already there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-dying-how-long-until-im-100-dead/743788.md?page=1)