Two Distinct Problems with a Chazal-Based Determination of Death
www.rationalistjudaism.com
In yesterday's post, I did not make it sufficiently clear that there are two distinct problems with applying the traditional style halachic approach, of drawing inferences from Chazal and Rishonim, to the topic of brain death. One is that Chazal mistakenly believed the heart (together with the kidneys) to house the mind, and consequently, the soul. (I know that some people argued that the mind and soul are not necessarily seated in the same place. I think that they can quite definitively be proven wrong, but that is not the topic for now.) Chazal lived in a world where a person's mind and soul were mistakenly thought to relay their force and influence from the heart, via blood and breath, rather than from the brain, via neurons and nerves.
Two Distinct Problems with a Chazal-Based Determination of Death
Two Distinct Problems with a Chazal-Based…
Two Distinct Problems with a Chazal-Based Determination of Death
In yesterday's post, I did not make it sufficiently clear that there are two distinct problems with applying the traditional style halachic approach, of drawing inferences from Chazal and Rishonim, to the topic of brain death. One is that Chazal mistakenly believed the heart (together with the kidneys) to house the mind, and consequently, the soul. (I know that some people argued that the mind and soul are not necessarily seated in the same place. I think that they can quite definitively be proven wrong, but that is not the topic for now.) Chazal lived in a world where a person's mind and soul were mistakenly thought to relay their force and influence from the heart, via blood and breath, rather than from the brain, via neurons and nerves.