That goes for the snuffbots, too.
Advanced brain scanning uncovered startling signs of awareness in a woman in a vegetative state, British scientists reported Thursday a finding that complicates one of medicine's ethical minefields.
The work is sure to elicit pleas from families desperate to know if loved ones deemed beyond medical help have brain activity that doctors don't suspect. ''Can he or she hear and understand me?'' is a universal question.
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Those who don't improve after a longer period are classified as in a ''persistent vegetative state,'' such as the late Terri Schiavo, who became a subject of political controversy over the question of taking such patients off life support. An autopsy showed she had irreversible brain damage.
Vegetative Patients May Have Awareness
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Once in a while they catch a bad guy for appearances.