Modern medicine can save life’s.

Death still scares us humans, because it’s a threat to everyone. But also because the riddle what happens after death isn’t solved either: neither by religions nor by science.

But when are you dead? There are several medical circumstances that define death. Or in cases of accidents or murders it’s often pretty clear that you are gone, when your head is blown off or your body is burned. These are easy cases.

The problem comes, when you are in a state between life and death - or your life is prolonged (in an unnatural way) by medical machines.

Let’s say you had some form of accident and your brain would be damaged beyond repair. Your mind, the person inside of you would be gone or better say no longer ‘function’. That also would mean that your friends and family could no longer ‘be’ with you - the person - but only the ‘body’ of you. So would you be dead?

But things can get even more complicated. What if only sections of your brain are destroyed, so some aspects of your body as well as your personality still function, although only on a very basic or weird level. This also happens in several forms of mental or nerve diseases.

Is that person dead or is that person alive?

Sometimes we can bring them back - to a good life.

Maybe I am approaching the discussion from the wrong direction? How do we define that a person is alive? How many aspects of your body and mind have to be ‘working’ that you as a person can be considered alive - in a legal, moral and medical way?

And I like also to make this once more complicated / realistic? How do you define a state were can you still have a good life?

Today medicine can save badly injured people like soldiers or car accidents. Plus our (western) societies offer more possibilities to disabled (or ‘reduced’) persons to lead a full life.

But many people suffer from incredible conditions, that are painful and/or destroying them slowly. Is there a point were you as a person start to die or you are actually a living dead?

Here I come to the point ‘when do we allow a person to die’? Many cultures had rituals and ways to allow people to end their life’s by their own free will and when they asked for it. Please do NOT confuse this, with killing people, because society ENFORCED certain rules who can stay and who has to go.

My personal point of view is that we are to obsessed to ENFORCE life on the dying and the badly injured/sick people. That may sound very cynical and brutal, but please follow my line o thought.

Can we outsource the living dead?

As a blatantly obvious point I like to say that we all have to die - so death is a normal and universal end to us all. Neither law nor our cultures have really come to terms with this. There is nothing wrong with ever better medical treatments and longer lifespans, but there is a difference between healing an injury / sickness or trying to heal ‘death’ itself. What’s the point of a prolonged life, if you can’t live it?

Should we create ever bigger intensive care units to drag dying people along with us. ‘We take good care of you’ suddenly sounds very strange to me.

And there is of course the huge ego factor of your friends and family. Nobody wants anyone to die, especially thru an accident or illness. For parents it is brutal and hard to bury their own children. But should you not only wish a good life to your loved ones - but also a good DEATH?

My personal opinion as well as fear is, that evolve more and more into a ‘prolonged life’ culture - not matter the cost, no matter the pain and no matter if it is enjoyable - you have to live on.

That sounds like a living hell to me.