Posted on 09/17/2006 9:49:54 AM PDT by wagglebee
ROME, September 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new case-study raises more doubts about the ethical determination of “brain-death”, since researchers discovered that a patient suffering from a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS) demonstrated similar brain activity to healthy conscious individuals according to Zenit news.
Under the leadership of neuroscientist Dr. Adrian Owen, the team of scientists from Cambridge University and the Belgian University of Liège applied MRI technology to discover that the brain activity of a PVS patient indicated she was “consciously aware of herself and her surroundings.”
In their experiment, the researchers gave oral commands to a 23-year-old comatose Englishwoman, who fulfilled all the requirements of a “persistent vegetative state”, while they measured her brain activity with an MRI scanner.
According to the researchers, the woman showed increased activity in speech comprehension centers in her brain while researchers spoke to her, indicating comprehension. When the researchers asked her to imagine herself playing tennis and walking through the rooms of her home, the imaging screen showed activity in the woman’s brain areas governing visual-spatial and motor functions: all patterns similarly observed in healthy volunteers.
In their report, Dr. Owen and his scientists wrote, "Despite fulfilling the clinical criteria for a diagnosis of vegetative state, this patient retained the ability to understand spoken commands and to respond to them through her brain activity, rather than through speech or movement."
"Moreover, her decision to cooperate with the authors by imagining particular tasks when asked to do so represents a clear act of intention, which confirmed beyond any doubt that she was consciously aware of herself and her surroundings," they stated in the September 8 issue of Science.
Zenit reports that Fr. Gonzalo Miranda, LC, a bioethics professor at the Regina Apostolorum University in Rome, believes this is the first time scientists have delved into the inner workings of a person’s brain activity.
"Until now," he said, "we only had a few tests about the responsiveness of a person in this state which were limited to exterior observations -- things or gestures a person could do or not."
"These studies have confirmed something I've upheld for years now: that a person in a vegetative state is not dead,” added Fr. Miranda. “They are a person living in a bad state, but they are a person, so we must respect them."
The recent case-study significantly bolsters the argument of opponents of the “brain-death” criterion for organ donation, who fear that severely brain-injured patients are seen more and more as living organ farms than as persons needing care and attention. Hospitals frequently have invoked “brain death” to justify harvesting organs ever since organ donation and transplantation became a multi-billion dollar industry beginning with the first successful organ transplants and the development of immunosuppressant drugs in the late 1950s.
Unfortunately, the Culture of Death DOES see all of us as organ farms.
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Ping!
There's some truth in that research. Judge Greer has been brain dead for years, yet is still making mindboggling rulings.
At one point I had doubts that clones could ever be used as organ farms, but now who knows. If cloning is ever viable who knows how it will be used?
+
If you want on (or off) this Catholic and Pro-Life ping list, let me know!
Where was this info when Terri Schiavo needed it?
the brain-death squad already was on watch before my dad was transferred from another hospital and then at this "world renowned" hospital, they refused to show me the cat scans that would have "proven" to me that there was "complete" brain death.
PVS should be distinguished from from three related neurologic conditions: brain death, the "locked-in" syndrome, and coma. With brain death (sometimes called whole brain death) the entire brain including the brainstem is irreversibly and completely destroyed. If brain death precedes injury to the rest of the body, all other organ systems fail within days. It is not possible to keep the body alive indefinitely with machines in cases of brain death.{16} Harvard Medical School criteria for diagnosing brain death include unresponsiveness, absence of spontaneous respiration, and loss of brainstem reflex activity.{17} In 1981 the President's Commission report proposed an updated version of the Harvard criteria.{18} While there have been some criticisms of these, the modified Harvard criteria are the ones most widely accepted for determining brain death.{19}
An EEG can easily tell if a person is brain-dead or not, and an EEG can easily tell if a person is in a true permanently unconscious vegetative state or a state more similar to the "locked-in" state (where the patient is conscious but unable to move or speak). Fortunately EEGs are relatively cheap and readily available.
Beat me by two minutes. Shouldn't have spent so long searching for an explanation of this. ;-)
It's a legal determination of the state.
So are you supportive of the forced death of people with PVS?
Maybe that is happening in some places. However, I do medical transcription for an intensive care unit and it is not happening where I work.
In any case, the author is still incorrect when he conflates brain death with vegetative state.
Hah, I've tangled with your group, but not today! It's a surreal experience. As the article posted indicates, truth is trodden underfoot. I won't put up with having my every word twisted and maligned and having the most outrageous insults said to my face today.
Absolutely not. My whole point was PVS is not brain death. Therefore, this study should have no impact on organ procurement decisions.
There are times where withdrawal of care of a person in PVS would be appropriate -- but that would be based on a living will or family input with regard to what the patient wanted. Not because the doctor thinks it's time for the patient to die.
And it's certainly not a judge's decision.
I think the criteria for brain death is simple... liberals, socialists, greens, progressives, communists and Islamofascists. There should be plenty of spare organs to go around.
Why don't we start asking the pro-aborts, Feminazi's, and similar fellow travellers about this?
You know, the "keep your laws off my body" crowd.
Game, set, and match.
Cheers!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.