The heart beating is not a good definition of being alive in my opinion. The heart stopping temporarily doesn't mean you died, you were just in terribly grave danger.

If a person is defined by their heart, what does that make a heart transplant?

utterly useless definition.

[–] uselessRN@lemm.ee 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We use a lot to define being alive not just the heart. The heart stopping is just an easy way to pronounce someone dead. What you described is called a pause. Not really the same thing. Brain death is also a thing. Any organ transplant allows you to function when otherwise you wouldn't be able to.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I meant like, when someones heart stops and gets restarted again with cpr or a defibrillator or something. People often call that being dead, and coming back.

[–] uselessRN@lemm.ee 6 points 2 days ago

So if someones heart stops we don't actually shock them. That's a medical show myth. We shock them if they're in something called a lethal rhythm. Which is the heart beating but not actually pumping blood. Very similar to the heart stopping and will eventually lead to the heart giving out. CPR keeps the blood flowing which keeps oxygen moving throughout the body preventing permanent damage. We give medications to restart the heart. They don't really die until these interventions are stopped. Some people also have a pacemaker that detects their heart going into a lethal rhythm and will take over the electrical impulse until their heart goes back to normal. By the definition of the heart stopping this person would technically die and be brought back too. So I see what you're saying but I wanted to add some context that this is pretty complex. Even more so when you bring in people deciding when they don't want these interventions.

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