Atheism and Life Support

[Freedom]

Mods: If this post is in the wrong area, please move it.

Many people say that when a person is brain-dead, s/he still has some measure of life that should be prolonged. I don't know much about this. Can a comatose person really hear and understand what is spoken to them even though s/he cannot respond? I have doubts about it. Theists say that the person's soul/spirit is active even though the body is simply in reflex-mode.

What is the atheistic viewpoint?

[Anomalocaris]

Soul/Spirit is part of the same pile of mumbo jumbo from which wafts the stench of asserted deity.

[downbeatplumb]

Life is not an on and off thing.
There are shades of grey, your brain may be dead but your lungs still function and so do the other major organs but what would be the point of keeping that alive.
Your guts are filled with bacteria that are essential for your life would you keep the body alive for those?

I always find that the people calling for life to be saved at any cost are the first to call for executing criminals. Just an observation.

[reverendjeremiah]

Depends on what parts of your brain is dead

[Minimalist]

Atheism deals only with the idea that there is no god.


To answer your question, I say pull the plug. We have enough brain dead xtians walking around now. We don't need any more.

[SleepingDemon]

It's more a gray area, however if the person is brain dead, with no hope of ever coming back, what is it exactly you are trying to save? Is it still that person? Or a husk of what used to be them? People like to romanticize life and consciousness, the fact of the matter is that your identity is a series of firing synapses and neurons, once that ends, you aren't you anymore.

[Jackalope]

As Min said, there is no "atheist viewpoint" on this. There are individual viewpoints.

From my perspective, were I in such a situation, my advance directive says to pull the plug and let me die.

[Faith No More]

All I know is that when I get my things in order, I will have my loved ones pull the plug on me.

[frankiej]

I just hope that my loved ones aren't a bunch of pussies about it... I hope they can actually do it without bitching.

[houseofcantor]

What's my atheistic viewpoint? If the person is religious, pull the plug.

My personal viewpoint? Last time I went to the hospital, I told 'em DNR/Organ Donor.

You're asking a tricky-assed moral question right there. Who's got the right to pull my plug? Any-fucking-body. Most people don't do the long term strategy. They be-bop through their lives until shit gets crucial and next of kin is called in to make moral choices. That should be avoided.