How long can individual cells live on a human body from the point the human dies? When a human dies, legally he is dead, but how is the medical explanation? Can a human be partly dead, that the heart and brain has stopped, but the cells on the body are still alive? When you talk about a human life, is it one life or could you consider each cell on the body as a living piece and the whole human body itself including the consciousness is just a container for the cells?