# Ariel Sharon still in coma **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 9, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493 "2010-04-09T03:44:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/1 "2010-04-09T03:44:34Z")
Anyone else think its weird that this 82 year old guy is still being kept alive in a coma. I honestly thought he was dead, He’s been in a coma since 2006. Is there any chance this guy can even recover something like this? I don’t know why, this just weirds me out for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/2 "2010-04-09T03:52:40Z")
And in other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/3 "2010-04-09T04:05:01Z")
Maybe they don’t have living wills in Israel? Doctors will keep someone as a potted plant forever,unless they signed a living will. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/4 "2010-04-09T05:49:20Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Maybe they don’t have living wills in Israel? > > Doctors will keep someone as a potted plant forever,unless they signed a living will. That’s alright by me! I told my family, as long as there is oxygen and food, keep running it into my body. Nobody gets my eyeballs if there’s a one in a million chance that I will have an opportunity to use them one more time! On the OP, however, I’m rather sad that Sharon became ill. I rather liked the old boy, and, I think that any country that has a leader with any kind of gizzard, which defines Sharon, can only do well. Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/5 "2010-04-09T12:44:31Z")
> [@pool](#): > > Anyone else think its weird that this 82 year old guy is still being kept alive in a coma. He can’t be the only one, but no, it’s not something I’d want. > [@](#): > > Is there any chance this guy can even recover something like this? No. > [@aceplace57](#): > > Maybe they don’t have living wills in Israel? It sounds like his family wants him kept alive, but for the sake of argument I’ll point out that not all living wills say ‘pull the plug on me.’ Some people do want doctors use all available means to keep them alive no matter how objectively hopeless it is. [This article details his current status:](http://www.theage.com.au/world/sharon-will-never-recover-doctors-20100105-ls9c.html) he is breathing on his own, most of his brain is gone, he’s lost (I’m guessing here) 50 percent of his former weight, and his family won’t allow the doctors to remove his feeding tubes. > [@handsomeharry](#): > > That’s alright by me! I told my family, as long as there is oxygen and food, keep running it into my body. Nobody gets my eyeballs if there’s a one in a million chance that I will have an opportunity to use them one more time! And that’s your right, but it’s rather selfish. I don’t know if this applies to eye donations in paricular, but organ donations are time-sensitive. If you’re a vegetable for years, by the time you die your organs may have degraded to the point where they are of no use to anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/6 "2010-04-09T18:34:23Z")
No, no, no…he’s still in [**Ta** coma](http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=tacoma&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Tacoma,+WA&gl=us&ei=9HK_S8OcO5KONv6C5LoK&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ8gEwAA). Not so weird when you consider _that_. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/7 "2010-04-09T20:49:36Z")
Its not weird. Its selfish. I’ve had him on my Death Pool list since _before_ the coma. He is doing this just to spite me. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/8 "2010-04-10T01:20:58Z")
Living wills are fairly useless. What he needs (needed) is a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (or would if he was in the USA). No doubt pneumonia or sepsis will take its toll soon. Pneumonia used to be called the old man’s friend for good reason. I have no doubt he’s getting top notch care, but humans were not intended to be bed ridden. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/9 "2010-04-10T01:35:37Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Living wills are fairly useless. What he needs (needed) is a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (or would if he was in the USA). Yuppers. Get a trustworthy POA for healthcare, and make sure that the POA knows exactly what you want done if they have to take charge of your healthcare. I’ve told mine that if I’ve no reasonable chance for recovery, I don’t want to be prolonged. No ventilators, tube feedings, IV nutrition, or antibiotics for infections. Just fluids and painkillers/anxiolytics until I move on from this vale of tears. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/10 "2010-04-10T02:00:05Z")
Shit man, I hadn’t heard of his death but just the other week I was actually thinking of this and assumed that he must be dead by now. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/11 "2010-04-10T02:00:50Z")
Me, too. There is no greater hell than to be helpless, useless, on a vent, tube fed with incipient bed sores. That is no life for me. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/12 "2010-04-10T02:23:30Z")
Over here, they will not pull your plug for any reason. (If you are a foreigner they will fly you home and look the other way.) It is possible Israeli law does not allow plug-pulling. I would be interested in knowing. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/13 "2010-04-10T04:40:52Z")
They pulled the plug on Jesus. What’s the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/14 "2010-04-10T06:10:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Maybe they don’t have living wills in Israel They do, but I believe his family is rather fundamentalist/orthodox jewish, and they don’t approve of them. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/15 "2010-04-10T06:48:19Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > They pulled the plug on Jesus. What’s the problem? IIRC, the Romans did that to the other prisoners (breaking their legs so they’d die faster), but not to Jesus, because he was already dead. Pulling the plug is not active killing. It’s quite passive, which is why it’s allowed while doctor-assisted suicide is not. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/16 "2010-04-10T17:40:47Z")
I have no clue what Israeli law says on the subject. HOWEVER IIRC Under millennia old Talmudic law, if his heart is beating and he’s breathing then he’s alive. If he’s alive, then removing the feeding tube would be murder. I, like many Jews, feel that in the age of EEGs, defibrilators, heart and lung transplants etc the Talmudic definitions of life and death need to be updated. We don’t expect this to happen any time soon though. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ariel-sharon-still-in-coma/535493/17 "2010-04-10T22:05:40Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > They do, but I believe his family is rather fundamentalist/orthodox jewish, and they don’t approve of them. The Sharons? They’re as non-religious as they come.