What Does It Mean to Die?

Re:What Does It Mean to Die? by pmoriarty on Thursday February 01, 2018 @05:27PM (#16286541)

"The other case has no such moral quandary, because the thing is already (definitionally) dead. ... It’s not rational if you accept the axiom that a braindead human is dead."

This article and this case are getting attention precisely because people are disagreeing on the definition of death. If everyone accepted the definition of death axiomatically, there would be no controversy and nothing to argue about.

But people do disagree about it, so if you want to convince people you can't just appeal to axioms that there's disagreement about. You have to make a case.

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Re:What Does It Mean to Die? by AstralStorm on Thursday February 01, 2018 @05:56PM (#16286748)

And people can disagree with the case you have made or are unconvinced by your arguments. Additionally, they can be selfish.

What is your suggestion on how to reconcile that with any definition of death?

Taken to the extreme, this would mean that cryonics would have to be both refunded by state and by insurance companies since it can technically put off actual death (information theoretic) somewhat forever, much cheaper than critical care. Though most families of people in PVS wouldn't want that.

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