[Avodah] Brain Death

[Hankman]

CM wrote:
>                          Your logic implies that even real decapitation
> is only a cause of death because it leads to cessation of heart activity,
> and not as an independent cause of death in its own right. Does RMT give
> your logic explicitly somewhere?

RMB responded:
The issue isn't whether the brain controls each heartbeat, but whether
the heart can continue without a working brain stem. IOW, not cause, but
an indication that the body can't still be independently producing breath
and heartbeat.

CM now responds:
But that was my point. The body can independently of the brain stem produce a heart beat (I did not discuss breath).

RMB wrote:
As for a RMT actually saying this, listen to
<http://www.hods.org/video/html/Tendler%20-%20RMoshe.html>
in the beginning and around 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through.

CM now responds:
I listened to the video you cited, but I heard just the opposite. RMT said (at about the third point and again towards the end) that RMF paskened that you could remove someone from a ventilator despite the fact that the heart is still beating! Thus brain stem death is not because it causes the cessation of heart function. Rmt seemed very concerned about apnea but not heart function.

Kol Tuv

Chaim Manaster


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