[Avodah] Brain Death

[Yitzchak Schaffer]

But is it not true that the classification of mes mamash comes only because it's humanly impossible to save him, supernatural jewels notwithstanding? Perhaps if it were standard medicine to do this, it would be a chiyuv.

You hit the point IMO: we need a definition of living human being for the purposes of retzichah/donation. I think that RNS's main point is that we shouldn't assume that Chazal's practical definition is an absolute definition, rather that it was based upon the lifesaving possibilities of the time, and that we should adjust the practical definition for our time. Whether that's true is out of my grasp.

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Yitzchak Schaffer

On Jan 17, 2011, at 0:26, "kennethgmiller at juno.com" <kennethgmiller at juno.com> wrote:

> If a person's head was cut off, even though the head and body are spasming, he has the din of 'meis mamash'. And even if there would be a way to connect the head to the body so that he would live, there is no chiyuv to do so even during the week, because there is no chiyuv to revive the dead, so on Shabbos it would be assur.