Re: When a person dies do their pupils get larger, smaller or stay the same?

The pupil is an opening in the front of the eye that allows light to reach 
the retina. In dim light, the diameter of the pupil increases so that more 
light can pass into the eye; in bright light, the pupils constrict (become 
smaller) so that less light reaches the eye. The regulation of this motion 
is involuntary and depends on two pupillary muscles, the dilator and 
sphincter pupillae. The spinchter is a ring-shaped muscles that closes the 
pupil, while the dilator consists of muscle fibers that open the pupil. 
The spinchter is controlled by parasympathetic nervours system, which is 
the part of the central nervous sytem responsible for bringing a body back 
to its normal, relaxed state after it has been stimulated or excited. The 
action of the dilator comes from the sypathetic nervous system, which 
pushes the body into an excited state (for example, in emergency 
situations that cause stress). The sympathetic nerve fibers originate in a 
part of the brain called the hypothalamaus. From there, the cells descend 
down the brain stem and make connections with other nerve cells in the 
spinal cord which ultimately innervate the pupillary dillator muscle. The 
parasympathetic nerve fibers also originate in the hypothalamus, but they 
descend to a part of the brain calleed the midbrain. They ultimately leave 
the brain and connects to the pupil. When a person dies, his brain is no 
longer active or may be damaged. COnsequenlty, there is are no longer any 
parasymptathetic actions that regulate constriction, and the pupils remain 
dilated.