Modern Imaging Techniques, Awareness, and the “Vegetative” State

William E. May writes at the Culture of Life Foundation: “The more clinicians discover about the so-called “persistent vegetative state” the more they realize the diagnosis is a moving target, not a monolithic state in which all possibility of consciousness has been irretrievably lost. This should give everybody pause before they (we) go on confidently to treat “vegetative” patients the way Michael Schiavo treated his wife Terri.”