Gus > There are three different definitions of death which have been used by the modern medical community: traditional heart-lung failure, whole-brain death, and higher-brain death.
Unquestionably, Terri did not have either of the first two -- heart-lung failure and whole-brain death and, after fifteen years it is remarkable that, as a "vegetable", she was even still "functioning". I won't say alive because that's what the debate is about. But, for the rest, she seemed perfect which, to me, is remarkable. This means that, with the exception of certain cognitive functions which you have mentioned above (her eyes do not really track visual stimuli and she cannot communicate using eye blinks) her physiology was normal. In other words, putting her predicament in its proper context, she was exterminated because, after fifteen years, she couldn't feed herself and because she couldn't really track visual stimuli and she cannot communicate using eye blinks.
I have already made my point that, considering her very slight deficiency, albeit of higher functions, if her parents were happy to care for her even just as an experiment or as a trial of life, if you will, then I do not see why they should not have been permitted to. I have also mentioned there are other reasons not the least being "humanity".
Your article makes the point "There has never been a documented case of someone recovering after having been in a persistent vegetative state for more than 3 months. However, the journal Brain Injury reported the case, of a 26-year-old woman who, after being diagnosed as suffering from a persistent vegetative state for six months, recovered consciousness and, though severely disabled, is largely cognitively intact." and I can accept that. But, I can also remember the time, and it wasn't long ago, when people were diagnosed as "brain dead" by the experts immediately after having sustained an acute injury/lesion to the brain. In fact, and I know anecdotes don't mean much, I personally, was involved with three such patients when I was in charge of the Critical Care Unit at a local hospital in the 1970s. All were profoundly unconscious, two after motor vehicle accidents, one after a cardiac arrest. All were diagnosed as brain dead and I was advised to cease treatment and, in fact, their condition was far more serious than Terri's. But in my usual cynical and perverse way I did not believe them and I continued with therapy --- and all three walked out of the hospital, admittedly many months later as, presumably, "cured". I am also aware of an accident victim who was admitted to a hospital in Durban as a donor for heart transplantation. Because the recipient died the transplant operations were not performed as scheduled and life support therefore continued on the remains of the "deceased" and "brain dead" donor until such time that a new recipient could be found. And lo and behold, and as in my experience, the donor woke up, recovered and walked out of the hospital.
I quote these stories to point out that human "experts" do not know everything and, most certainly, they do not know when someone is dead. Sure, there are certain clinical signs but those are crude and superficial. The fundamental truth is that no-one KNOWS exactly what is going on in the human brain. As far as Terri was concerned, I accept that the chances of her full recovery to normality were indeed small -- but I am not prepared to say they were zero, simply because no cases previously had so recovered after fifteen years. I can assure you there was a time when people thought three months was an unnecessary long period to give for a "trial of life". And it was only because patients were given that "trial" that recovery was found to be indeed possible. |
