Anonymous Caller Heart Beat Just becuz your heart beats... does that mean you're alive? Mahoro Sometimes, you don't even need a heart to be alive! You just have to live! Sora A physical heart isn't important when it comes to being alive... it's a spiritual heart that counts. If you have faith and belief in yourself and your friends, that's all there really is to being alive. Akagi Ritsuko It is possible that you may be getting a bit too metaphysical for our anonymous caller. While one can argue to no end what the true meaning of what it is to be "alive" is, if you want to stick with human biology, things are a bit clearer cut. By "a bit," I mean that there are different means of assessing life or death in medicine, and so whether one is alive or not depends on what metric one uses. If a person's heart is beating but their higher-order brain functions have ceased, then their body may be viable but they would be "brain-dead." Since the brain is the seat of consciousness, and is effectively what makes you an individual person, this is usually the primary standard as to whether someone is "dead" or not. Conversely, one can be on complete life support, which will keep the brain and the rest of the body alive despite a non-functional, or even removed, heart. It is quite clear that you would not wish to call such a person "dead." The heart is a muscular blood-pump. A very critical, and sophisticated pump, I will grant you, but a mere component none-the-less. So while it can be "alive" or "dead," that does not directly imply the same is true of its owner.