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Pulling the Plug ??
Haiie.. this issue has always bothered me .
when someone is on life support is it okay to pull the plug ?
the straight foward answer would be no, because only God has the power to take away a persons life. but think about it.. if it werent for the machine, the person wouldnt be alive.. so if that person lived in a previous time.. they would be dead. and since they are only being kept alive with a machine isnt it possible that theyre spirit is no longer dwelling in their body, but their bodies are still functioning... more as robots than human beings ??
& if the doctors want to pull the plug then that means there is no hope [ except for miracles ofcourse ] .. but what if they do pull the plug. ? if God wanted that person to live He would do it before they pull the plugs out .. right ? God does not make mistakes.
hmm did i make any sence ? if i didnt please ask me to clarify. ANSWERS PLEASE :D .
when someone is on life support is it okay to pull the plug ?
the straight foward answer would be no, because only God has the power to take away a persons life. but think about it.. if it werent for the machine, the person wouldnt be alive.. so if that person lived in a previous time.. they would be dead. and since they are only being kept alive with a machine isnt it possible that theyre spirit is no longer dwelling in their body, but their bodies are still functioning... more as robots than human beings ??
& if the doctors want to pull the plug then that means there is no hope [ except for miracles ofcourse ] .. but what if they do pull the plug. ? if God wanted that person to live He would do it before they pull the plugs out .. right ? God does not make mistakes.
hmm did i make any sence ? if i didnt please ask me to clarify. ANSWERS PLEASE :D .
Comments
My aunt was on life support with no chance of recovery (I think). the day when our family and hers was supposed to go to the hospital to decide whether to keep her on it or "pull the plug", God took her. She passed away that day really early in the morning so that her family wouldn't have to make the decision.
. . .
God works in miraculous ways.
If a person is clinically dead...........then it is ok 2 pull the plug
sounds harsh i guess......but that is life!!!!!!
that answer was so insensitive u could have said it in a different way.
quite obviously these people were going through a hard time and ur answer was so unnecessarily insensitive - i so wish some people would consider others feelings before posting their replies
Kristina123
they're not dead. if God wanted them dead then He would take them. ??
up to which stage should we let science interfere with the will of God, that is where do we draw the line? so i guess thats the question? right?
this of course will raise many issues such as cloning etc.
Kristina123
is this right ?
as i said the church standing is what ive already mentioned
& He wouldn't something as serious as death not go according to plan.. so i guess i just answered my own question. you keep them there for as long as the doctors let you, and the rest is up to God.
God did not create these things but man who has been given the free will by god do what he pleases. Whether that is for the good of humanity or not is another question.
Moreover this idea that god gave permission is completely incorrect. Its better to say he gave us free will, cause god would not give permission 4 something 2 go ahead that is not good.
what he said was exactly what i did, that God owns all things.. even those destructive things like guns..
From the religious standpoint, death is the separation of the soul (the spirit) from the body. God created man from dust and gave him the breath of life. When the spirit returns to God, the dust also returns to dust, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7).
When God breathed the breath of life into Adam, He gave him life, and Adam became a living being able to understand, feel, move, breathe, and have all the organs function. Death means that he returns to dust, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19), which means that life stops when the spirit returns to God.
Since the spirit is invisible, it is difficult to determine when the spirit enters or leaves the body. Yet, this can be determined by the factors revealing its presence. Absence of the aspects of life is evidence of the separation of the spirit from the body. In man these aspects of life depend on brain activity.
The living human body is not merely a group of organs functioning, but they must function harmoniously and in order; they are all dependent on a person’s very existence. Actually, what makes the organs function harmoniously is the brain. Although some organs may continue to function temporarily after brain death such as the heart or some muscles, yet they do that for a short period of time and without harmony.
For example, a person’s head maybe severed from his body and the heart may continue to beat or muscles may move, yet the person is considered dead at the moment the head was severed and not after that. 0Therefore, brain death is considered by some to be "physiological decapitation".
Determining death by cessation of all brain functions resulting from damage of all brain cells is acceptable religiously for the following reasons:
1. Cessation of brain functions is accompanied by cessation of all aspects of life in a human, which means that the breath of life (the spirit), which God has given man, has departed and he is no longer a living being.
2. Following brain death, the continuation of some aspects of life such as muscle movement or heartbeat, is only very temporary and does not change any of the aspects of life for the human being.
3. Placing a patient on life support following brain death in order to continue the heartbeat and breathing is an artificial process, which does not have a real effect on human life. Instead, it places the family under emotional and financial burdens. Although it is different from mummification, yet the idea is similar. In mummification, the corpse is preserved to avoid decomposition resulting from natural death. The corpse maintains its outward appearance of a living being for hundreds or thousands of years, but this does not change the fact that it is a corpse of a dead person.
Considering the total cessation of all brain functions as an indication of death helps in the following cases:
1. Comatose patients who are placed on life support. They may continue in the coma for days or weeks without any significant improvement. In such cases, physicians pose to the patients’ families the difficult decision of withdrawing life support. With a clear conscious, we can say that as long as there is definite evidence of complete cessation of all brain functions, then life support should be withdrawn from the patient, whose spirit has departed from him.
2. Using brain death as criteria for death opens the door for organ transplants of those recently deceased before decomposition of the organs occurs.
hmmm
Kristina123
I think u may be confusing comas with individuals in a "vegetative state". These people r not in a coma and can not be classified as brain dead. but rather they r awake without awareness.
Moreover as we said if there is clear evidence of all brain death, then termination of life support is allowed by the church!!!!!!!
if u care to read the question more carefully and perhaps this time shift your focus from crticism to answering the question, that is if u truly have an asnwer - cause i think ur reply reflects the fact that you can not answer the question!
sarcasm is neither beneficial nor a good way to strenghten any argument - i suggest u analyse ur style - or lack of!
Kristina123
If ur brain is dead ur soul is out of the body. Fullstop.
As i said where is ur evidence..........u tell me go and look at google........fantastic i did.......no one has come out of a coma after that lenghth of time...however again i wish to be proven wrong......so find me exact details.
Cant say much bout ur style either!!!!
I hope i made sense
P.S: I was afraid to give out my opinion cause from some of the posts.......well........god forgive me........but...i don't know how to put it into words just know that i was scared to put this post on here from how some people treated others.(or maybe i'm not used to american talking :P)
God forgive me,
EGYPTIANKRKR
oh man...people just need to chill and just provide what they have to say without arguing.
Anyway I agree with egyptiankrkr...most people actually remove life support because ya the doctor said so and in some countries the insurance company will stop paying for that individual after they have been on life support for a certain amount of time.
The doctors should know their stuff and maybe they are confident 100% that the brain of that certain individual have stopped but God is able to change that in an instance...who are we to decide when a person dies and doesn't die? I don't know the church position on that issue and it really won't make a big difference to me because in that case (ba3d el shar) I would keep whoever is on life support as long as God want them to be.
"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."Matthew 19:26
God raised Lazareth from the dead, healed the sick and overcame the impossible...who are we as sinners to say that this person should die because he has been on life support long enough and have cost us so much money.
Please forgive me and pray for me ;D!
egyptiankrkr
p.s.: i could be totally wrong....i don't know...be patient with me i'm still learning and growing in the spritual life.
I think u may be confusing comas with individuals in a "vegetative state". These people r not in a coma and can not be classified as brain dead. but rather they r awake without awareness.
the original question was not about people in comas or people in a vegetative state. to be on life support you may be 'brain dead' but that is not always the case.. and although i did not mention it, it was not what i was referring to. But you have answered it, a person whose brain is dead is DEAD. now lets move onto those who ARENT brain dead.
So let me quote myself with the question and mayb ill split it up u say that a person who falls in a coma - is braindead and one can "pull the plug". so according to your answer the spirit has departed them at that very instant.
ok now got that?
next now lets assume that a person is in a coma for a week (i think this may help u get over the hurdle and therefore understand the question!) and after this week recovers.
are you saying that the spirit leaves them and then returns in a week? or are we to assume that the spirit never left them?
SO the essence of the question is how can one b sure that the spirit has left anyone?????
ok now to address egyptiankrkr
i quite agree with your comments and as Christians we are always taught to have faith in Christ. i especially like the example of Lazarus which shows us that there is nothing which is impossible for God. we need to realise that the Bible is not just history and that its contents are still relevant today and also a message from God that we should never give up. i am not about to start engaging in slanging match - im sure u do not wish to take me on either!
if u wish not to reply then DONT.
Kristina123
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/05/earlyshow/series/main760296.shtml
http://www.nysrighttolife.org/coma_recovery.htm
I think as usual u have rambled on enough kristina123.......and have come 2 know avail.......u say uve understood what i have said but i think u havent read what ive written.
ive never said coma is braindeath as u point out in ur above post..........all ive said is that if ur brain dead there is no chance of u coming out of a coma.
To ur question.........if ur NOT braindead.......then ur soul is in u............i hope that is clear enough.
This will be my last post on this issue.........i see myself as having nothing further to add on this issue......ive given the church opinion on the issue and that is all i can do
if this is what happens when one asks a valid question, that is they are attacked, then i really dont want to post no more.
u know its really hard to explain something to someone who is so set in their own ways and wont even consider others questions -- how will u survive in society? whats more dissmissing people as u have is something which is completely unacceptable by anyones standards.
i will go ask someone reliable to answer my question as i do not wish to discuss this further with the likes of u.
Kristina123
+FROG+