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EDITORIALS "Awakening His Mind's Eye".(Terri Schiavo)(Editorial)
"Their evidence suggests that even after an injury that leaves a brain badly damaged, even after months or years with little sign of consciousness, people may still be capable of complex mental activity."
New York Times Magazine, September 28
Professor William Brennan is a pro-life scholar whose academic life's work it's been to illuminate the dark power of destructive language. Dehumanizing the Vulnerable: When Word Games Take Lives helps us understand how a witch's brew of derogatory words mingled with degrading labels and stirred with a demeaning stamp of disapproval works to poison our attitude toward the medically vulnerable.
We see this at work in the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo. Her husband wishes to have the feeding tube through which his brain-injured wife is fed removed, according to the Associated Press (AP). Various "experts" called by the husband insist Terri is in "persistent vegetative state (PVS)," even though her parents and more than a dozen experts brought in by her parents insist she is not, the AP reports.
This is no mere quibble over words. It's crucial. Under Florida law, if she is said to be in a PVS, there need not be "clear and convincing evidence" Terri would want her feeding tube removed. Terri is, in fact, severely brain-damaged, but that is NOT the same as being in a PVS. (To be clear, pro-lifers would adamantly oppose robbing her of nourishment by removing the tube even if she were in a PVS.)
A local judge has ruled that Terri's feeding tube should be removed at 2:00 p.m. October 15. Unless the rag-tag army of family, friends, and volunteers who have stood by Terri for years find some last-minute legal reinforcements, Terri may have died by the time you read this editorial.
But the PVS label is not the only diagnostic label that opens the door to taking food and fluids away from severely brain-injured patients. Of more recent coinage is the "minimally conscious state." But this is "an inaccurate name for an invalid concept,'' according to Dr. Alan D. Shewmon, chief of pediatric neurology at the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
- Possible axonal regrowth in late recovery from the minimally conscious...
- Magazine article from: Journal of Clinical Investigation Voss, Henning U. Ulug, Aziz M. Dyke, Jonathan P. Watts, Richard Kobylarz, Erik J. McCandliss, Bruce D. Heier, Linda A. Beattie, Bradley J. Hamacher, Klaus A. Vallabhajosula, Shankar Goldsmith, Stanley J. Ballon, Douglas Giacino, Joseph T. Schiff, Nicholas D. July 1, 2006 700+ words
...reliable expressive language after 19 years in a minimally conscious state (MCS); the second had remained in MCS for...that support this inference. Introduction The minimally conscious state (MCS) (1) denotes a specific level of functional...
- Mobility and Survival in Minimally Conscious Children.
- Newspaper article from: Neurology Alert January 1, 2001 700+ words
...cohorts of children (3 years old at time of study entry) initially in PVS, immobile minimally conscious state (iMCS) and mobile minimally conscious state (mMCS) with respect to survival over a 10-year period. Ashwal et als group used detailed...
- Minimally conscious patients not being tracked.
- Newspaper article from: Medical Ethics Advisor May 1, 2007 700+ words
...vegetative state or the minimally conscious state are being cared for in...the next 20 years in a minimally conscious state in a nursing facility...eventually wake from the minimally conscious state. "Cases like those of...
- Doctors 'jump-start' man's brain: Patient had been minimally conscious.
- Newspaper article from: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) August 2, 2007 700+ words
...been in what is called a minimally conscious state for six years after suffering...stimulation can help even other minimally conscious patients. "It is way...these patients and in many minimally conscious patients, is so severe...
- Stanford Symposium Planned on Minimally Conscious Patients.
- Press release article from: Business Wire June 21, 2007 700+ words
...brain activity of a woman who became minimally conscious after a traffic accident. Following...of studying the brain activity of minimally conscious patients. Among the important questions...panelists discussing neuroimaging in the minimally conscious patient and ethical ways of ...
- GUMC study may help explain 'awakenings' that occur with popular sleep-aid...
- Newspaper article from: NewsRx Health July 19, 2009 700+ words
...doing any of these activities the next morning. Similarly, this drug has been shown to awaken the minimally conscious into a conscious state. A new study by Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers may help explain why these...
- Odd Behaviors on Ambien Linked to Brain Circuitry; When the sleep aid shuts...
- News wire article from: Consumer Health News (English) July 2, 2009 700+ words
...awake -- and without remembering it the next morning. The drug has also been shown to awaken minimally conscious patients into a conscious state. In experiments with mice, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington...
- Coma: Four Case Studies.(Video recording review)
- Magazine article from: The Science Teacher Seidman, Cary January 1, 2009 700+ words
...distinction drawn in the program is the difference between a persistent vegetative state and a minimally conscious state. Patients in a minimally conscious state can show amazing recuperative powers, sometimes quite suddenly, while little hope exists...
Source: HighBeam Research, EDITORIALS "Awakening His Mind's Eye".(Terri Schiavo)(Editorial)