http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/vegetative.state/index.html

"Five years ago doctors believed he slipped from a coma to a vegetative
state, leaving his body functioning but without his personality or
consciousness.
 The researchers, based at Cambridge and Liege universities, realized that
diagnosis was wrong when the man responded to questions about his life as
scientists monitored activity in his brain.

Using a scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI), the patient's brain activity was mapped while he was asked to answer
"yes" or "no" to questions such as "Is your father's name Thomas?"

The patient communicated answers by wilfully changing his brain activity.

In the three-year study, 23 patients believed to be in a vegetative state
were scanned using fMRI, and signs of awareness were detected in four of
these cases (17 per cent), the researchers said."


That's really messed up. So now...when is it ok to pull the plug??


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