[Avodah] Brain Death

[David Riceman]

RMB:

<<It does. But. In order to have a chazaqah, one has to have a known state

that you're presuming holds. (Either because it used to, what the Sheiv
Shemaatsa calls as "chazaqah demei'iqarah", or because of a law of nature
/ human nature, "chazaqah desvara").

Are you saying we all agree as to what that known state is? If so,
what is it?>>

I don't know why you think this. To pick an analogy, there is day, there 
is night, and there is an intermediate state known as bein ha'arbayim.  
Can you define the precise boundaries of these three states? Most 
aharonim claim that bein ha'arbayim is inherently a safeik.  Nonetheless 
there are plenty of examples of hezkas yom and hezkas laylah.

There is being alive, there is being dead, and there is an intermediate 
state known as goseis.  Why should this be any different?

On a more philosophical level there seems to be an internal 
contradiction in your position.  On the one hand you want "alive" and 
"dead" to be what Leibniz and (following him) Godel call a primitive 
concept.  That means that they can't be defined in more fundamental 
terms.  On the other hand you insist that they must be definable in more 
primitive terms.

On a slightly different subject, I hope to have time to look at the 
tshuvah RAM cited over Shabbos.  While inserting a bookmark I noticed 
that RMF's conclusion is, indeed, that heart transplants are double 
murder.  Do people still follow that opinion?  He says the mortality 
rate is almost 100% after a few hours, which is (AFAIK) no longer true.

David Riceman