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Rath on 14 March 2012
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Allfreedom99 said:
Rath said:

Three things.

Coma != braindead. If he were brain dead the situation is quite different.

Assuming he is braindead (in which case yes I consider him dead) it is not within your authority to 'unplug' him. That is the doctors authority.

Once again assuming he is braindead - I don't think you committed murder but I do think that you just mutilated a body which is in itself a criminal act.

 

Edit: And yes I agree that essentially philosophy defines personhood as consciousness - that still isn't scientific though.

Actually Coma does not mean the individual is "brian dead". a Coma is usually onset by some type of damage to the brain. Those that enter into a coma may wake up and they may not. Who's to say he would not have woken up in the future and returned to a normal human being?

Given that fact Did I end a human life or not?

I think you've misunderstood me. I was saying exactly that, a comatose person is not necessarily brain dead (!= means not equals in lots of programming languages). If the person is not brain dead then I would clearly still consider them a person.

 

@Jumpin. A brain dead person is also biologically a human being. If all you requires is living cells with a unique set of human DNA then the bar for personhood is set rather low.