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<font color="blue"> There is a living human being there, yet there is no cognitive or mental activity. So, is this George or not? If not, who is the human being in the hospital bed? </font>

So it is my belief that a man who dies at 8:53, does not exist at 8:54. His body is still there and you can still pin his old identifying name "George" if you like, but George is gone. It's a dead body in the bed that was "once" George.

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Interesting. That's my view too by the way--that once I'm dead I no longer exist. But I don't think I'm a 'mind' in some sense, although of course I have a mind, but not essentially. I think that I am fundamentally a biological entity, a human animal, and that I can still exist even if I'm in a persistent vegetative state with no consciousness and no mental activity.