[Avodah] Brain Death

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 06:19:06PM -0500, David Riceman wrote:
> The problem with this argument in that Hazal draw analogies between  
> human death and animal death.  See the discussion of decapitation in the  
> tshuvah of RMF which RAM cited.  You, IIUYC, ought to claim that all  
> such analogies are irrelevant.  This passuk is cited by several rishonim  
> as evidence of the unique nature of the human soul.  So how can it be  
> relevant to death, which is analogous to what happens to animals?

WADR, you're missing the forest for the trees.

My point is that there are two, or perhaps three issues here:

1- Chai vs meis, which for all we know may not be a physical issue. Animals
   too have nefashos.
   But even if it is a physical issue, we still need to define what change
   does a body undergo when it crosses the line, and I have no reason
   to assume all acharonim agree as to what that is.

   (For that matter, you equally raise a problem with brain-stem death, as
   non-cordates [e.g. bugs, lobsters and octopii] can also be alive or dead,
   despite lacking anything removely like our brain structure.)

2- Diagnosis -- finding a physical feature that rules out the person as
   a chai.

2b- Chazaqah -- where a certain diagnosis is impossible.

I still think the machloqes is on the first level. They are assuming
different things about what is misah, whether misah necessarily involves
the brain. This then changes the choice of diagnostic tool.

My particular stab in the dark as to where to look to find a definition
of alive isn't really the point. It's the separation of concerns:
defining life vs defining what medical tests can be used diagnostically
to determine it.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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