Determining halakhic death is not merely a theoretical issue or academic exercise. Historically, the halakhic definition of death has had practical consequences for many matters including marital status, yibum, inheritance, euthanasia, homicide and, more recently, organ transplants.
The following example may well illustrate that this is a contemporary issue: A violent argument broke out between a married couple on 16 November, 1982, at 3:45 am in a community near Tel Aviv . The husband put an end to the dispute by throwing his wife out of the window of their fourth floor apartment(the equivalent of the fifth floor in North America ). When the victim was brought to Assaf HaRofe Hospital, the attending physicians pronounced her brain dead. They connected her to an artificial respirator and other life support systems.
It took five days to locate the woman’s relatives to receive permission to have her kidneys donated to two desperately ill patients. After extracting the kidneys the doctors disconnected the support systems.
The"bereaved" widower was convicted of murder in the first degree by the Tel Aviv District Court. In his appeal to the Israel Supreme Court , the defense attorney put forth an original argument on behalf of his client. The appellant admitted that he threw his wife out of the window, but claimed that it was not he who had killed her. She was still alive in the hospital--her heart was beating and she was breathing as long as she was connected to the life sustaining apparatus—- until the doctors pulled the plug and disconnected her. That's what really killed his wife!