When is a person dead?

Question

A case in the Massachusetts is reviving the issue as the case of Terri Schiavo,who was in a persistent vegetative state when a state court ordered the removal of her feeding tube. (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/03/after_buddhist_dies_legal_battle_continues/?page=1)

Last week, doctors declared Cheng, who suffered cardiac arrest the day after Thanksgiving, brain-dead and said it was time to remove him from the ventilators and intravenous medicines keeping his organs functioning.

But the family refused to let doctors take Cheng off the life-support system because his heart was still beating. They said their belief as Buddhists was that Cheng's beating heart meant his spirit and consciousness was not ready to move on. Taking him off life support, they said, would be the same as killing him.

The case is still being litigated though Cheng has since died.

Can a person be dead when his heart is still beating? What do you think?

Answer 1

no one asked, but I have instuctions also if I get like that , pull the tubes

but death is up to the opinion of the state or the doctor or your religious belief.

you have brain death ( no activitey) not able to breath on your own, and so on. There is no one right or wrong answer

Answer 2

Cheng died because his family agreed to stop the medication that was keeping his heart beating.

If there is no brain activity, a concept that was not considered when the early rules for determining death were formulated, then the person is as good as dead. He can never enjoy life or interact with his family or share a thought with anyone. He is just a machine that is pumping blood around to keep the rest of his body machine ticking.

You can feel sorry for him and his family but there was nothing human left inside him.

Answer 3

It kind of depends. Traditionally, physicians have been the experts on when death occurs. However, new technologies have allowed us to vastly extend life expectancy and allow life to persist long past when the body would have died on its own.

Then, you have arguments as to the quality of life and the difference between the body being alive and the mind being alive.

At this point, society and law have not truly set in stone when death is final. We each have our own opinions on the matter. Our technology allows us to know when the body dies to within a few moments. We are not, however, as confident about death when spiritual or emotional considerations are applied. We have faith & hope that if we can hang on long enough a miracle, technological or otherwise, might still happen.

Never giving up is an aspect of our survival instict and we often attach it to ourselves as well as those we care about. To do everything within our power and provide every chance possible allows us to be confident that if death does occur, we did everything in our power to prevent it.

Answer 4

It's as tough a call as the debate of when life begins.

In my opinion it's the machine keeping his heart beating not anything his body is doing on it's own. If there wasn't a machine doing the job....he'd be gone. But when it's your loved one it's not easy to be the one to pull the plug because it is like you are killing them.

That's why I have my living will done up. Life to me is over when my mind is gone and I don't want by family loosing everything they have to keep me "alive" or be put in the position to make that horrible decision of pulling the plug.

Answer 5

I think it depends on ones belief. The doctors would argue that it is when the brain dies. Others will say it is the heart. More spiritual people will say it is when the spirit leaves the body.
I personally would go along with the medical explanation.

Answer 6

Your brain can die separately from your body, and vice versa, although a body with a dead brain can be kept alive for quite a while, unlike a brain with a dead body.

Once the brain goes, the body is just a piece of meat. Quite frankly, I thinks it's beyond gross to keep it "alive" once there's no-one home.

Answer 7

would you like to live in a body that is more like a prison, because you can't even interact with anything around you?

if the answer is NO, what would be the purpose of worrying about it?

if you don't know, try it out!
have a friend or family member tie your arms and legs together, blindfold you, and strap you to a bed where you can't move.
do this for a week, and ask yourself again, if you could live like that! for years at a time??

Answer 8

The person's heart would not be beating without life support. The person is essentially artificially alive. Therefore, if they are brain dead, and unable to function without life support, the person is dead.

Answer 9

the guy who invented the wheel. i might say after that probable Plato, or possibly Socrates. Being a logician that a tactics decrease back in time might supply them a deep perception into the social subject concerns of the circumstances and the subculture as nicely. to no longer point out they may well be completely in a position to discribe the stable nutrition and 'coffee' residences of the day ( or wine residences or despite grow to be the community counterculture of the time) i might p.c. to appreciate how issues particularly replaced.

Answer 10

Only medical doctors really know. Those who aren't shouldn't have a say in when a person is declared dead.