People still respire in deep meditation - otherwise they would die.
I like to keep my options open until I get there.
I know what you mean, there are exceptional cases in every domain - but we know that if people stop respiring, they die.
Respiration is not breathing though, so that on it's own doesn't mean that breathing doesn't stop in deep meditation - but in order to respire, the body needs oxygen, which it cannot absorb in sufficient quantities through the skin and mucus membranes to provide for all the body's requirements, which means that breathing cannot totally stop during deep meditation, otherwise the person would definitely die.
The breathing may become so slow and light as to be imperceptible though.
"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"
"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" - Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta