Salon has a lengthy article about how a persons brain may still be functioning while they are in a persistant vegatative state, in some ways this seems to make the idea of keeping these people alive for years even less humane. Although maybe guys like Senator Vittor might really like the idea of someone changing his diaper everyday some of us might prefer death with at least some dignity.
Let’s briefly look at the study. In mid-2005, a 23-year-old woman sustained massive head injuries in an auto accident. Following multiple brain surgeries and five months of rehabilitation attempts, she remained unresponsive. According to her treating physicians, she could open her eyes but could not respond to any commands; she could not voluntarily look in the direction of a voice; there was no evidence of orientation or emotional response. They determined that she was in a permanent vegetative state — a neurological categorization of patients who emerge from coma, appear to be awake, but show no signs of awareness of self or environment.
Before the recent advances in functional brain imaging, most neurologists, based upon their bedside observations and brain wave studies, would have agreed that the woman, though “awake,” was extremely unlikely to have a significant private mental life — either in terms of personal awareness or willful mental activity. (This failure to differentiate between awake and aware was a major feature of the Schiavo affair.) But new tools bring new opportunities; her doctors wondered if the fMRI could provide additional understanding of the clinically unresponsive brain. What if the fMRI could demonstrate residual consciousness and self-awareness, perhaps even the ability to respond to commands?
For me personally it would be worse to be aware of my situation and know that I was powerless to move or communicate, and I would probably want to be taken off life support. It also helps make a case for active euthanasia as starving to death is probably pretty unpleasant. It also shows the importance of a living will as some people are probably fine with the idea of sitting in a bed unable to move or communicate, and these people should probably make that known in a living will; If I am ever in a vegatative state I hope Al will send this post to the hospital so they will know that I would like to be disconnected . You might have to sit through an advertisement but you can read the entire article here.
Right after I alter your will, no doubt, I’ll be right over with a copy of this post.
Until they can find a way to regenerate tissue that has turned into liquid…super stem cells and gorilla glue maybe…
That was a unique period of this whole Bush presidency, wasn’t it? The site was buzzing with some serious debate over that whole thing. And when the poll came out showing 3/4 of Americans thought it wasn’t any of the government’s business…I think that was a tipping point of sorts, where the religious right overreached once too often, and the politicians who had made a living through pleasing that crowd had to deal with some shit. Delay, Frist come to mind…they’re no longer around.
Delay used it as an opportunity to urge rednecks to start killing judges that ruled against…God, or whatever Pat Robertson believes. That was really a scary moment, and the country appeared to have sanity. Stunning.