what is death?

by Rachel

Mar 21, 2011

Through all of the medical advancements that have been made how do we decided when a person is actually dead? Machines are able to keep a persons body functions active for years but is this person alive? Religious people say that the person is alive until the spirit leaves the body but how can you tell when a persons soul or spirit leaves their body (assuming that this ideology is true)? And to extend this discussion is physician assisted suicide murder? Should a person be able to decide what treatments they want or be able to say when enough is enough? If i had enough treatments, enough suffering who would have the right to tell me that i couldnt give up, tell me that i had to suffer more. 

Thoughts??

Load Previous Replies
  • up

    PJAAI4

    I think doctors use heartbeat and brainwaves to determine living or not.  But your question is more metaphysical than that.  You want to know what life is, not what death is.

     

    When you can't take care of yourself, I'd say living is all downhill.  When the body can't support its own functions, I would say death is on the way. 

    Mar 22, 2011

    • up

       

      I think suicide of any form should be acceptable. Should be a basic human right to choose not to exist.

      Nov 5, 2011

      • up

        It's hard for me to answer, biologically, if the heart beats then the person is alive, right? 'disconnecting' the person means taking a shortcut to death. I heard from a woman whose dad had been in bed for six months, 'kept alive by machines' see her father's body wilt from lack of movement on that bed, and go from severe to unbearable pain, until one day, the man 'got too tired and decided to go' the family gathered around his bed, him not saying anything but 'squeezing' his daughter's hand when she said, in tears, that she loved him and that she would be okay if he decided to go, she went home, took a shower and went back to the hospital, just as one of her sisters who was living in another state made it to the hospital, talked to him and then he passed away. Was it a farewell? I'm not sure, but it seems to me so. I believe people should be left to decide so, but when you're being kept alive it's hard to tell, right? So I guess, again, that as long as the body has functions, they should be kept alive. Because deep down they're struggling to survive...and besides, when the body's had too much, it fails and dies, at least I think so...
        1

        Nov 6, 2011