MARK N. STAITMAN

precedent for the treatment of those in a persistent vegetative state, the halakhah had to look to other cases from which a parallel could be drawn. Some suggest we find a parallel in the goses. This is most unfortunate because the goses is clearly not a parallel. The goses is expected to die within three days. The goses is considered a living being for all purposes."What is the difference between ill people and gosesin? The majority of ill patients live, while the majority of gosesin die." While all patients in a persistent vegetative state will eventually die, they will not of necessity die from this condition unless it goes untreated. Some have attempted to draw a parallel between the terefah and the patient in a persistent vegetative state. This too is unfortunate because the rerefah is a terminally ill patient who will die of his disease. Maimonides , in his Mishneh Torah, states"One who murders a terefah, even though he eats and drinks and walks about the market, he is exempt from human judgment. All human beings are under the presumption of being healthy and one who murders is put to death unless it is known with certainty that the one murdered was a terefah and doctors testify that this illness had no cure and the person would have died from this, if not from something else first."'® The patient in a persistent vegetative state is not a terefah for a persistent vegetative state is not a terminal illness. Where then is a parallel to be found?

One possibility for a parallel might be found in the Talmud. "R. Judah said in the name of Shmuel, if the neck bone and the major portion of the surrounding flesh was broken, the body immediately defiles in the tent."'" Maimonides , in his Mishneh Torah states,"A dead person does not cause ritual impurity until the soul has departed. Even if one is bleeding to death or a goses...If he broke his neck bone and the greater part of the surrounding flesh or if his back were ripped like that of a fish, or if he were decapitated or his belly broken into two parts he is rendered ritually unclean, even if he still trembles in one of his limbs.""? The halakhah joined the individual who was decapitated with the one whose neck bone was broken. Why? What do these individuals have in common? The person who was decapitated is, for all posgim, dead. There was no possibility of recovery. While limbs might twitch

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