Hi Allay,
Please don’t address questions to just to me. Keep them open. I encourage everyone to participate.
1. Gandhabba cannot make decisions on that. Only gandhabba’s of people who have developed abhinna powers can come out of the body at will.
– Actually, some people with “punna iddhi” (as vipaka of good kamma) have the ability to get the gandhabba or the mental body out of the physical body at will. Also, during heart operations, they may be ejected too. See, “Manomaya Kaya and Out-of-Body Experience (OBE)“.
– Some other people with another type of punna iddhi can see some “dense gandhabbas“.
– I hope some of them will volunteer to discuss their experiences at the forum.
2. Even if the physical body is failing the gandhabba inside is fine. It just does not get any inputs from outside if the brain is failing (because the mana indriya is not working and “dhamma” from the mano loka are not coming in); see, “What are rūpa? – Dhammā are rūpa too!“.
-Now, the death of the physical body does not necessarily mean it is the cuit-patisandhi moment. That happens when the kammic energy for the bhava runs out. So, when the physical body dies, gandhabba is ejected and has to wait for another womb; see, “Bhava and Jati – States of Existence and Births Therein“.
3. This is a difficult personal decision for the one who has the authority to initiate the “shutdown process”. It is taking a life, but his/her compassion for the dying person may mitigate some of the bad consequences.
– Let me mention the following account from the Tipitaka. One time the Bodhisatva was a captain of a ship. During a voyage, part of the crew plotted to kill him and most of the crew to take over ship. The Bodhisatva found out about the plot and killed the coup leader. That avoided a conflict which could have led to the loss of many lives. However, the vipaka for killing that person cannot be avoided.
– This is another type of suffering associated with life in this world. Some actions have both good and bad kamma vipaka, and it is not easy to decide whether to do it or not.