What is it about?
Main Topic: The study investigates how death and mourning practices are evolving and how these changes pose ethical dilemmas, especially due to digital technologies (like AI-based grief tools), global health crises, and multicultural complexities. Purpose: To examine these ethical dilemmas and cultural adaptations and develop a globally applicable ethical framework (called GREF-DMS) that can guide researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Methodology: Systematic literature review (using PRISMA) of 44 studies Semi-structured interviews with 19 experts from relevant fields Hybrid Thematic Content Analysis to extract six key thematic clusters Key Findings: Conflict between traditional mourning practices and institutional limitations Weaknesses in current ethical review processes (e.g., overreliance on procedural consent) Cultural mismatch in the use of digital/AI grief technologies Lack of integrated cultural and spiritual grief training Gaps in policy and preparedness for crisis-induced grief Main Contribution: A new, interdisciplinary ethical framework—GREF-DMS—is proposed to support more culturally responsive, ethically grounded, and practically scalable approaches to death and mourning across different global settings. If you're preparing to present or publish this, the core takeaway is: This study provides an urgently needed ethical roadmap for navigating death, mourning, and grief in a digitized, multicultural, and crisis-affected world.
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Why is it important?
1. Global Crises Have Disrupted Traditional Practices Events like the COVID-19 pandemic, climate disasters, and armed conflicts have: Prevented traditional funerals and communal grieving. Disrupted cultural rituals tied to dignity, closure, and memory. Created psychological trauma due to isolated or rushed deaths. This disruption calls for frameworks that can ethically and sensitively navigate mourning in times of crisis. 2. Digital and AI Technologies Are Redefining Grief Emerging tools like: Virtual memorials AI chatbots simulating the deceased Online mourning platforms …are changing how we process grief—but often without ethical oversight or cultural fit. This raises profound questions about consent, digital dignity, authenticity, and cultural appropriateness. 3. Existing Ethical Frameworks Are Inadequate Most ethics protocols focus on biomedical consent models that: Overlook cultural, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of grief. Fail to address new technologies and cross-cultural mourning needs. The study highlights the urgency of a more holistic, inclusive ethical approach. 4. Practitioners Lack Cultural-Spiritual Competence There’s a gap in: Training on grief in multicultural contexts Interdisciplinary approaches integrating medical, psychological, and cultural insights This leads to insensitive or incomplete support for the bereaved. 5. It Proposes a Scalable, Actionable Solution By offering GREF-DMS, the study: Helps standardize yet culturally adapt ethical decision-making in grief contexts. Equips professionals across domains (healthcare, tech, policy, religion) to act responsibly. Supports ethical innovation rather than stifling technological progress. In Summary: This study matters because it fills a pressing gap—offering guidance for ethically navigating a changing deathscape, where old rituals are no longer sufficient, and new technologies demand thoughtful integration within diverse cultural realities.
Perspectives
Great question. The perspectives embedded in and relevant to this study are multidimensional and interdisciplinary, reflecting the complex nature of death and mourning in a globalized, digitized world. Here’s a breakdown of key perspectives: 1. Ethical Perspective Focuses on the moral dilemmas arising from new mourning practices, especially those involving technology (e.g., AI griefbots, digital memorials). Questions who decides what is appropriate, who is harmed or honored, and how consent and dignity are preserved in culturally diverse death experiences. Challenges universalist Western bioethics by advocating for context-sensitive, pluralistic ethical frameworks. 2. Cultural and Anthropological Perspective Views mourning as a culturally constructed and socially embedded practice. Highlights how global crises and migration create hybrid mourning identities—blending traditional rituals with new digital or institutional forms. Emphasizes ritual, memory, and belonging in understanding grief, and critiques frameworks that ignore these dimensions. 3. Technological and Digital Ethics Perspective Examines how digital death technologies (e.g., AI avatars of the deceased) challenge existing ideas of identity, memory, and emotional healing. Raises issues of data ownership, posthumous privacy, and emotional manipulation. Pushes for ethical design principles in grief-related tech—respectful, inclusive, and sensitive to different belief systems. 4. Psychosocial and Spiritual Perspective Considers mental health, trauma, and resilience in the grieving process. Advocates for spiritual and emotional literacy among healthcare and support workers. Recognizes that for many, grief is not just emotional but existential and sacred, shaped by religious or cosmological beliefs. 5. Policy and Global Health Perspective Identifies the lack of institutional preparedness for death during pandemics, disasters, or displacement. Highlights the need for cross-cultural policies that uphold dignity in death—especially for migrants, minorities, and marginalized groups. Calls for interdisciplinary collaboration in developing ethical guidelines, training, and crisis response systems. 6. Decolonial and Justice-Oriented Perspective Challenges dominant narratives of grief and ethics that are rooted in Euro-American epistemologies. Advocates for epistemic justice: valuing indigenous, local, and marginalized ways of mourning. Emphasizes the right to grieve in culturally meaningful ways, resisting erasure or homogenization.
Dr. Dwi Mariyono
Universitas Islam Malang
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Navigating ethical boundaries in death and mourning: A hybrid analysis toward a globally replicable framework, New Ideas in Psychology, December 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2025.101187.
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