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Its soul vs brain. Are we souls that associate ourselves with bodies for a time? Or are we simply identities that arise from the actions in the brain? This is the split facing people dealing with this issue.
Unfortunately for the "let her go" crowd the opposition can make a very emotional appeal based on soul thinking. She looks like a person therefore the soul must still be contained therein. This is the same argument that gets made concerning abortions. It looks like a person. It has a heart. Therefor it must have a soul and killing it would be murder.
But to those that believe that identity, the soul, or spirit arise from the brain, they see this as a perpetuated tradgedy. With so much of her brain gone her identity is demolished. Even if they were able to reconstitute her brain her unique identity is long gone. A brain is not just some antena recieving an identity from space. The life and experience a person has is recorded and defines them within the brain. Even a clone cannot be made to be the same person. A brain transplant, if it were possible, would result in a different person being present in the body.
The argument boils down to body vs brain. Is the identity associated with the body or the brain. With the body intact some can simply not dismiss her identity or soul as still being present within it. Others look and see that the brain is decimated and realise that though there is life the person is gone.
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