Can a living human being exist without a soul..?

I've been employed in an HIV/AIDS hospice over 10 years and never crossed paths with this philosophy. Simply curious as to what your "random thoughts" are...

We've a resident very close to death yet able to converse clearly, at least for the moment. Since arriving to our facility he's gone by his Eastern religious name, not the name given him by his parents.

He recently informed his parents and our staff that he's now to be called by the name his parents gave him because the spirit/soul of (his religious name) has now left his physical body.

He's told us the body still remaining here is the painful, suffering shell of (the name his parents had given him.)

Could his spirit/soul possibly be lingering in our facility waiting for his physical body to pass over...? Do you feel a human being can be alive and not have a soul...?

Being Catholic I cannot quite wrap my brain around this, yet understand there are many people with personal religious beliefs other than my own.

Care to share your thoughts...?

My thoughts: The resident may be preparing himself for his end.

As I see it, being close to death gives a person a sense of mental clarity that is unattainable at any other time in life. I would not believe this had I not visited my grandfather two weeks before he passed away. It was very important to him that I reconnect with my aunt (his sister), and so he arranged that we visit him at the hospice on the same day. When I saw him, he cried periodically during conversation, as though realizing the importance of our visit and of even the little aspects of life. The one thing I clearly remember him saying: "Please don't hate your father." And he cried a little. To me, it seemed like he was trying to set things in order, say a few last things to me, and give some of his newfound, crystal-clear perspective.

I'll keep this very short because I dont really want to get into the perticulars of how I came to this conclusion but, "Can a living human being exist without a soul..?" Yes, there are plenty of souless people out there.

I'm an atheist so I don't believe there is scientific evidence for a soul, thus, we are all existing without souls.

I'm a secular humanist. I used to be Jewish (I converted to Judaism when I married my husband), but for me it is hard to believe in a high being. I tried, I just can't. Like Ginger Snaps stated, there is simply no evidence of a soul.

Velvet Spider, the gentleman at the hospice is obviously going through psychological distress (for lack of a better word) related to his pending death. It may be that he has some deep rooted issues related to his upbringing and his identity (the two names thing), and now that he's passing, this (the talk of his eastern name/soul) is his way of trying to resolve those issues. My two cents (not a psychologist yet, lol).

I'm spiritual/agnostic so I think there is something more to existence that we don't see, but I don't believe in a sort of god the way most religions do. There is something very special about the nature of consciousness.