Using EEG machines, researchers tested 16 patients who had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state following brain injury. The patients ranged in age from 29 to 45 and had various types of brain injuries. One man had been unresponsive for almost two years.More and more evidence suggest that the bright line between conscious patients and the dreaded irreversible vegetative state is fuzzier than we have previously thought, and that some fraction of them are, in fact, aware of their surroundings to some degree or another.
After having electrodes attached to their scalp, each patient was first asked to imagine making their right hand into a fist, then to move the toes of both feet. The EEG would record any electrical signals in the brain following each command. Identical EEG testing was performed on 12 healthy volunteers.
Three of the patients repeatedly generated electrical brain activity that matched responses seen in healthy volunteers: the same areas of the pre-frontal cortex, located at or near the top of brain, lit up on a monitor after they were given the two distinct commands.
When challenged on this, advocates of euthanasia for such patients often respond "But who would want to live like that anyway?". Why not try to wake them up and ask them?
Some may well agree that death is preferable, but humans being human, I'm sure many that had said "kill me if I ever get into that state" as a healthy youth would rethink that stance when the choice becomes truly personal.
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