Reply To: Does Netilas Neshama on Shabbos Only Apply At the Organism Level?

Here is a less sarcastic answer
Whether or not chazal knew of cells is irrelevant, it is impossible to recognize it on a halachic level
For if we did, you wouldn’t be able to eat, drink, breath
The air we breath, the water you drink is full of microscopic organisms. (we breath in 1 million microorganism a day)
chazal always works on a level of “nerah l’anyim” whether it is for kosher drinking water or picking an esrog.
So, no, I can not imagine that we are worried about ascribing death at a cellular level (which, as i said in my previous post, is natural anyway)
However, that said, on a larger scale even though an amputated limb can theoretically be thrown to the dogs. We are supposed to treat it with some reverence and most say a kohen does need to stay away from it.