Chronic Vegetative Patient: A Torah Perspective, The

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The author discusses the halachic status of a patient in a chronic vegetative state (deep coma) and what obligations would exist to artificially extend the life of the patient when there is no chance of recovery.  This discussion is not relevant to the discussion about brain-death because the comatose patient is not, by any measure, brain-dead. A second question the article looks at is whether this patient should be considered a goseis and the halachic ramifications of this designation.  The Talmud defines a goseis as someone whose death is inevitably in less than three days.  On the one hand, this patient can live considerably longer than three days.  On the other hand, without modern medical technology, they would certainly die in less than three days.  Rabbi Moshe Feinstein rules that they should be considered a goseis while some others disagree.