fashioned man of dust of the earth and instilled in his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living creature.”(Genesis 2:7) Spontaneous respiration is thus the primary sign of the living state.
Maimonides rules that the halakhah in this controversy is according to the tana kama(first opinion) of the beraita(Tannaitic Statement):
If they examined him as far as his nostrils and found no
breath there- they leave him alone because he is already
dead.®
The Shulhan Arukh followed suit:
Even if they found him crushed and mangled, so that he can live a short while, they clear away the debris and examine him as far as his nose, so if they determine no sign of life there, then he is indeed dead.’
BRAIN DEATH
Is there a scientific basis for the halakhic determination that the cessation of respiration is the end of life? Yes, indeed. This view of the halakhah is related to the most authoritative, modern medical determination of human demise, namely, brain death. The ability to determine a state of brain death is the most widely accepted medical and legal definition of death. It has also advanced the understanding of halakhic demise.
In 1968, a special interdisciplinary group of experts was brought together at Harvard University to investigate this problem. It became world renowned as the"Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death ." Its report declared: "Our primary purpose is to define irreversible coma as a new criterion
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