Because I spend too much time on Facebook once papering time comes around, I found this article the other day. It's about a man in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) who is able to communicate with doctors via fMRI. This development certainly complicates the debate about the care of patients in PVS -- something we are discussing in my bioethics class today.
John Paul II, everyone's favorite Polish, pro-life pope, stated that brain death -- the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain function -- could be considered the death of the person. That is to say, it is an indication that the soul has departed from the body. (From a Catholic perspective, that is the definition of death. Medical signs are indications that this event has happened.) He also stated that patients in PVS are alive and, as living human beings, deserve the care given to human beings, specifically food and water/nutrition and hydration.
[Note: A patient in PVS has some brain activity. This person demonstrates lower brain function and sometimes higher brain activity as well. This condition is not medically (or morally) equivalent with brain death.]
JPII of course caused a stir by this second statement, but this latest medical finding lends support to his position: this person's soul is still present.
So far all I've seen is news reports that one doctor got one patient to give yes/no answers. No peer review. No replication. No reports of particular answers they've given that clearly couldn't have resulted from chance. So I am unconvinced, and will wait for other reports. First reports of incredible scientific breakthroughs have been wrong before.
ReplyDeleteNo peer reviews mentioned in the article, but if you read to the end, you will see that similar things have happened with other doctors and patients. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to look into what if anything the neurologists from Cambridge mentioned at the end have written.
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