Q. (See question 1855 above) Why does the patient who was connected to a heart-lung machine, and experienced a complete cessation of the natural heart and lungs functions, which is the traditional definition of death, have to fulfill mitzvos after such a procedure? Hasn’t he experienced T’chiyas HaMeisim?
Why is he not considered like born again and he should have to remarry his wife?
A. This question is similar to the one above. As Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a explained, for the patient to be considered dead by Halacha standards, his dead has to be also irreversible. Even if the patient is maintained for a relative long time in such an inanimate state, as when lowering his body temperature, as long as he can be revived, he is seen then as continuing his former life.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a
Leave A Comment