A number of years ago I was conversing with a Roman Catholic friend who said, "Doctor, I've been wanting to ask you a question. I understand that now after a man dies, at times it is possible to institute resuscitation procedures and bring him back to life again."
"Yes, that is so, in certain cases, where the resuscitation takes place before four minutes have passed," I admitted.
"Now I want to ask you, have any such persons afterward reported any of their experiences beyond death, such as visits to heaven or hell?"
I had to admit that I had never heard of any such reports.
"Then," he said, "there must not be anything to the theory that the soul exists after death."
More recently I was talking with an intelligent Greek Orthodox friend, telling him something about what I had observed recently in the• advances of surgery by the use of the heart-lung machine. After listening- for some time, his first question was, "Then what becomes of the patient's soul? Where does it go?"
Come with me and observe some of these procedures and you will understand better why persons who have believed in the traditional views concerning the soul are concerned about this. We are entering the operating room where a man with a badly scarred aortic valve will have that replaced with a plastic valve, thus giving him a better life expectancy. Without this he might soon die from heart failure.
In the operating room many pieces of highly specialized equipment are being used. There is a constant electrocardiographic tracing visible on a special television screen, showing the course of the heart's own electric currents as they pass over the cardiac muscle. Other machines give constant readings of the patient's blood pressure, venous pressure, and temperature recordings.
Most intriguing of all is the heart-lung machine, which takes blood from the patient, pumps it through an oxygenation process serving in place of the lungs, then back again into the patient, thus maintaining his blood pressure and temporarily taking the place of his own heart.
Highly trained specialists are also present, for the patient's very life depends on their combined skills. The anesthesiologist must keep the patient at the right degree of anesthesia. The cardiologist keeps constant watch over the patient's cardiac status, while the surgeons are opening the chest, repairing the heart, and completing the delicate operation. Highly trained cardiac status nurses and technicians also play very important roles in surgery such as this.
Soon after the patient is anesthetized, one team of surgeons exposes the femoral artery to receive a tube from the heart-lung machine, while another team of surgeons exposes the heart, placing tubes in the superior and inferior vena cavae to carry blood from the patient to the heart-lung machine.
When all these important connections have been made, the machine begins to pump the blood through a specially cooled chamber, thus temporarily placing the patient in a state of hibernation so that he will require little or no anesthesia.
In order for the surgeon to work on the aortic valve, the heart itself will have to be stopped. A clamp is placed across the aorta and the vital functions of the patient are maintained by the machine, which is now pumping his blood and breathing for him. His own heart is not beating. He might almost be considered as technically "dead," for the vital functions of his body have been taken over by the heart-lung machine. Does his soul then reside in the machine? This is an interesting question which Adventists have no difficulty in understanding.
After a time the operation on the heart is completed, the new plastic valve having been properly sewn in place. The clamp is taken off the aorta and the patient is warmed up. Now it is time for his heart to begin beating again. A special defibrillator machine is used to send an electric shock through the heart. A mild shock is given, but if there is no proper response, the voltage is increased. Still the heart may fail to respond properly. Certain medicines are admitted and another shock wave is passed through the heart, but without proper response. Again the voltage is increased. This time the heart beats for a short time, then stops.
Once more they try, and this time the heart takes over and begins to beat normally. The lungs are now insufflated by the anesthesiologist and regular breathing is begun through the breathing bag.
At this point we must admit that the patient is alive. All his vital functions are returning, and soon he will begin to breathe for himself. However, had the surgeons failed to revive the heart, the patient would never wake up, for it would be impossible to keep him connected to the heart-lung machine for very much longer. This raises the question of when such a person actually dies. So let us consider another interesting situation.
Because of serious infections, certain patients may lose the function of their kidneys permanently. This is a very sad situation, for life will not continue long when the kidneys are unable to carry on their normal functions. Considerable research is being done with a view to helping such unfortunate persons. A special dialyzing machine, about the size of an average washing machine, is used through which the patient's blood is passed two or three times a week, each treatment lasting about six hours. The cost to one wealthy man who had followed this treatment for some time was around $15,000 a year. This is far beyond the ability of most patients with serious kidney disease to consider.
If the patient happens to have an identical twin, a kidney can sometimes be successfully borrowed from his twin and grafted in. But things are more complicated for those who do not have an identical twin, for the body tends to reject a kidney grafted in even from a close relative. In this case, the grafted kidney dies and may become worse than useless.
Today various medicines and methods are being devised to make the body accept the borrowed kidney. But where can we obtain healthy kidneys to help these unfortunate people? It may be risky for a relative to give one of his own kidneys.
Grafting healthy kidneys from a person who has recently died has been tried, but this is less successful, for the graft must be done immediately or it will not take, for the grafted kidney may be without circulation for too long a time.
However, in the large cities there are always some young healthy people who are involved in serious accidents. Some of these victims may actually live for a few days in some hospital without actually regaining consciousness. At the same time another patient may be waiting for a kidney graft. If the surgical team is ready, both patient and accident victim can be transferred to the operating room and preparations made to graft the good kidney to the sick person as soon as the accident victim dies.
To make sure that the kidney remains in good shape, a heart-lung machine can be connected to the accident victim prior to his decease. As soon as this occurs, the heart-lung machine is started, thus maintaining circulation while his kidney is removed. This man actually died before the machine was started. When the heart-lung machine is removed, he will remain dead. Did his soul momentarily leave the body and then come back again while the heart-lung machine was running? This hardly seems feasible to rational minds.
No! Such theories will not stand modern, careful scientific scrutiny. Some who have believed in the present immortality of the soul realize this and are trying to find new explanations for their rigidly held beliefs. Much depends on our interpretation of words such as "soul" and "spirit." Outside of our own ranks the great majority of Christians are deeply confused over the true nature of man.
Some who believe in the present immortality of the soul are hedging on the old statement that immediately at death the "spirit" soars away to its reward. Now, certain time is given the "spirit" to hover about and wait for proper conditions before soaring away! These are some of the problems people face once they launch forth on nonscriptural doctrines. We can be grateful for the clear Word of truth so beautifully stated in the Gospels and for the apostle Paul's words to the Corinthian believers: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." Then, and then only, will the children of God be given immortality, a privilege never granted to those who have rejected the message of redeeming love. God so loved this lost human race that "he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
