I usually say that Energy can not be destroyed thus life goes on in some way, but I just found a interesting argument against that.
http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/ask/a10462.html
If energy cannot be created or destroyed what does this say about life after death?
Not much that I know of.
What you say about energy is accurate, however, the energy in the body is maintained by chemical reactions which keep the body warm and at 98.6 F. Energy flows out of the body as heat, and exits the surface of the body as infrared radiation. When you die, the chemical reactions slow to a stop, and the cells break down chemically to give up their last ergs of organized energy. The heat produced also radiates away from the body as infrared radiation until the body reaches equilibrium with its environment and absorbs as much infrared 'heat' radiation as it emits.
So far as we know, that is all there is to the process of death, and there is no violation of energy conservation.