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<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>RMB wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>That is not in contradition to what I said. What I said was that
brain<BR>stem death makes the person incapable of prolonged hearbeat. If
someone<BR>who has no brain stem activity is on a machine keeping his heart
beating,<BR>we can know that what's going on isn't an *independent*
heartbeat,<BR>and doesn't qualify as life. Not that the heart is or isn't
beating,<BR>but whether the person could ever have a heartbeat of their own
doing.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>CM responds:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>RMF was talking about removing someone from a
ventilator, not from a heart-lung machine (I think). The key difference
being that the the former does not artificially provide a heart beat or
pumping action whereas the latter not only provides for breathing but also pumps
the blood in place of the heart (and also provides oxygenation, CO2
removal etc). Thus when you write "</FONT>on a machine keeping his heart
beating, we can know that what's going on isn't an *independent* heartbeat, and
doesn't qualify as life" you seem to be thinking of a heart-lung machine, not
the simple ventilator that was the subject of RMF's tshuva and RMT's reference
in the video.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>So far as consistency in RMT's video, I too had the
feeling that there could be issues of his exact meaning, but could not put my
finger on it. I assumed it was a fairly subtle point or just my own inability to
grasp the subtlety, so not having much time to watch the video again I just
let it go.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Kol Tuv</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Chaim Manaster</FONT></DIV>
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