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From organ donation discussions I learned that some don't view brain death as death and only view the cessation of the heart's beating to be death.

According to that, if someone's heart was stopped and then resumed, must he remarry his wife and must his brother do halitzah?

msh210
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Clint Eastwood
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1 Answers1

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My understanding of the view that the heart has to stop beating for the person to be considered dead, is that it requires a few factors simultaneously:

  • No heart beat
  • No breathing
  • Doctors saying that those functions cannot be revived

As long as any one of those three are in place, the person is not considered Halachicly dead.

Not remembering where I read that, as it has been a while.

Therefore, if he is revived by the doctors after the first two have happened, he was never dead, and it is considered that he lived the whole time, uninterrupted.

I have seen some discussions around bonified Techiyas HaMeisim. In that case, the marriage is dissolved, I believe was the conclusion (with all the attendant considerations). But that has nothing to do with Halachic death, Techiyas HaMeisim is a different category (see here and here).

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Yishai
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  • Ok. so say that this happens. Must he remarry his wife and must his brother do halitzah? – Clint Eastwood Jul 07 '14 at 15:42
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    @ClintEastwood, no, he didn't die. – Yishai Jul 07 '14 at 15:47
  • What if the doctors gave up hope? – Double AA Jul 07 '14 at 15:54
  • @DoubleAA, and the person spontaneously revives? – Yishai Jul 07 '14 at 15:55
  • Sure. 10 minutes later. Stranger things have happened. – Double AA Jul 07 '14 at 15:55
  • @DoubleAA, indeed. But that isn't a question solely on those who say that heart beat death is death. Brain death has also revived. In that case, I don't know what we would say, but I would guess we would say that the determination of death was shown to be mistaken. – Yishai Jul 07 '14 at 15:58
  • @Yishai I would suspect as much as well, which means the last qualification for death is really: that you don't wake up. Which renders the OP's case moot. – Double AA Jul 07 '14 at 15:59
  • @DoubleAA, no there is a nafka mina (if doctors think he can be revived he cannot be treated as dead, if they don't, we don't have to be choshed to spontaneous revival). And I doubt that that is unlimited. If he revives a week later? I think that would be "bonified Techiyas HaMeisim". Where the border between one or the other is, that is a different question (and I have no idea). – Yishai Jul 07 '14 at 16:03