-consists of cells
-uses energy
-develops
-reproduces
There are some exceptions, such as sterile hybrids. And controversies like the age old question of whether or not viruses are living; but for the most part, for something to be alive, it needs to meet scientific criteria.
My question is similar, but more metaphysical than physical. It lies in knowing where the difference is between living and truly being alive. I was raised in a conservative tradition that held to the pro-life mantra of “life is sacred!” My family wasn’t militant about it, it was just accepted. Life is worth living; don’t kill people just because they can’t fend for themselves.
During my last clinical rotation as a nursing student I worked with patients who made me question just what it is that makes us alive. They were all breathing – some of them on their own, others with varying levels of assistance – they were all “alive” in the textbook sense of the word. But the majority of them were in what we healthcare people politely and clinically call “a persistent vegetative state” This is the technical term for what happens when a person doesn’t respond to external influences with any sort of intelligent response. It’s less brain activity than an infant, if for no other reason than the fact that infants have hope of progressing to higher brain function and physical development.
As an emergency medicine junkie, it was a very, very difficult rotation for me. I’m accustomed to the mad rush of saving lives. This was the slow routine of maintaining them.
By the end of my eight weeks I was adept at suctioning a tracheostomy while maintaining sterile technique and administering feedings and medications via gastrostomy tubes. I could do the ADL care for my patient and have time to spare for helping my classmates, but I still didn’t have a sense of peace about the philosophy behind the physiology. Do I believe in euthanasia after all? Does quality of life trump quantity? I can’t embrace that for the implications it brings to the bigger picture. Who makes decisions about what version of life is actually worth living? But neither do I embrace the idea that an eighteen year old man who has spent more than two thirds of his life lying in a bed, never tasting ice cream on a summer day and reveling in sunshine is really and truly alive.
Where do our souls live? Honestly. Are we surrounded by people living out some strange form of purgatory on earth due to the advances of medical technology that hasn’t advanced quite far enough?
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I left this post without posting it because I didn’t feel that I had a satisfying conclusion. Now I’ve come back to it (granted, at 0200, but I’m nocturnal) and I’m almost convinced that it’s one of those questions for which we mortals will never have an answer. It asks things too deep for us to know. So I’ll keep doing my best to save lives and continue to hope.
