Question: In the 1987 *[Robocop](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/)* movie, Alex Murphy was shot by some gangsters.

When OCP was making Robocop using Alex Murphy's body, **was Alex Murphy still alive, or did OCP use his *dead body* to make Robocop?**

Answer: 
**Murphy was dead.**

When the doctors are operating on him, the line is 

> 
> **Surgeon #1 -** *Ok, let's shock him to flatline, then quit.*
> 
> 
> [They shock him]
> 
> 
> **Surgeon #2** - *No pulse!*
> 
> 
> **Surgeon #1** - *I'm calling it* [[medical slang for declaring the time of death](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/76601/call-it-what-does-this-term-mean-context-i-cant-im-calling-it-im-calli)].
> 
> 
> 

which tallies very nicely with what we see in the film's official novelisation

> 
> A loud voice crashed through the fog. The dreams shattered. “I’ve got a straight line. Crash cart! 10 cc Adrenalin. Stand clear!”
> 
> 
> He felt cold grease on his chest. A surge of electricity slammed into his muscles. There was the ferret-faced thug.
> 
> 
> “Hit him again!” someone screamed. A sudden jolt conjured up the face of the Asian hit man. Another jolt. The farmboy. And another. The black man. And another. The high-foreheaded clown who blew his hand to shreds. His killers. He bade farewell to them all. Only blackness filled his life, now. A void.
> 
> 
> **“That’s it. He’s gone,”** he heard someone say from another planet.
> 
> 
> 

We see later see in the film that he was officially declared dead by the State. He had a funeral and his widow was provided with a pension.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/r92r8.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/r92r8.jpg)

and this from the film's [original script](http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/robocop-script.pdf)

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/l0zrZ.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/l0zrZ.png)

---

If you take the later [TV series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop:_The_Series) as canon, we actually *see* his body in the DPD morgue

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0l77m.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0l77m.jpg)
I think that Murphy's body is gone. They used his face to honor him, says Robocop in the film *Robocop 2*. However, I think they used his face because they used his brain. It makes sense that if they used his brain in the creation of Robocop, they would use the face that used that brain, i.e. Murphy. So in my book, Murphy lives on in Robocop. The reason Robocop says (while gesturing his face), "They did this to honor him," is because he doesn't want to hurt his wife anymore, knowing that her husband is still alive, but never coming home because he works 24/7. Anyway, that's my take on it.